[Know This] Promises of a Precious FaithSample

Peace and Grace

In the greeting of his second letter, Peter writes the same thing that Paul does numerous times: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Grace and peace always go together, but grace always comes first. If we have not yet experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we can't experience His peace.

When Peter says, “Grace and peace be multiplied,” he uses a word for multiplied that means, “a lot be reproduced, over and over again.” And Peter is asking this because grace and peace can, and will, increase in us.

Peter asks that this may happen in the “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” This knowledge does not mean only a mere intellectual understanding of some truth. It points to the full comprehension of a matter. It is used in the same sense that our Lord used it in John 17:3, which is an experiential, deeper, practical, living acknowledgment of God and His Son.

Peter had already spent thirty years getting to know Jesus experientially.

A husband may have intellectual knowledge of his wife. For example, he may know where she grew up, her hobbies, who her friends are, the people she surrounds herself with, what she does for a living, where she works, if their parents are alive, where they live, if she has any siblings, and so on.

But, after some years of marriage, walking hand in hand through tough times and good times, through conversations, laughter, and tears, a husband can know his wife beyond just the facts about her.

In that same sense, Peter is telling us that grace and peace can be multiplied as you more fully know and experience Christ.

Peter offers us a guaranteed and eminently practical way to enhance our daily Christian experience. When we know Jesus, we know the Father, and that is made possible by the power of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Who doesn't want grace and peace to multiply in your life?

Father, I yearn for grace and peace to be multiplied exponentially in my life. Please, lead me to know You and to be closer to You. I do not want to only know facts about You. I want to know Your heart and to have deep conversations and share life, tears, and laughter with You.

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