The Increase of His Grace!

" We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.  Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring."
2 Thes. 1:3 - 4

In his first epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul thanks God for their faith, love and endurance.  Those qualities were present and observable by works and labor.  Here, in this epistle, Paul is rejoicing and thanking God for the increase in their faith and love and their continued perseverance and endurance.  That is, they were not just one-time (a while back) Christians, but they are continuing, on-going and growing Christians.

"The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day" (Prov. 4:18).  And thus we should always make forward progress in our progressive sanctification.

Note that the increase of this grace is every bit the work of God as is the initial implanting of this grace.  And thus God is to be praised and thanked! 

As Matthew Henry notes in his commentary on 2 Thessalonians:

Note, Where there is the truth of grace there will be increase of it. The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day. And where there is the increase of grace God must have all the glory of it. We are as much indebted to him for the improvement of grace, and the progress of that good work, as we are for the first work of grace and the very beginning of it. We may be tempted to think that though when we were bad we could not make ourselves good, yet when we are good we can easily make ourselves better; but we have as much dependence on the grace of God for increasing the grace we have as for planting grace when we had it not.

If we are to increase in faith and love and in endurance, we need Grace.  How then are we to find this Grace?  It is found in Peter's admonition to his readers: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"  (2 Pet. 3:18).  We can only grow in Grace if we are growing in Knowledge of the LORD.  And Knowledge of the LORD will only come from increased reading of His WORD, the Bible.  That is, the more we really know about God, the more we will be conformed to His likeness and the more Grace He will give to us.  Grace does not appear without specific revelation of His will.  Grace and Knowledge of God are inseparable.

Thus, to increase in faith and love and endurance, we must get into the Bible, read it and apply it.