Short answer: Second Peter 3:18 tells believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The two belong together: grace is God's undeserved favor already given in Christ, and knowledge is coming to know him more truly. Peter places this command just after a warning about being carried away by error, so growth is the God-given alternative to drifting. The verse closes in praise, which means growth aims at Christ's glory rather than our own improvement.
Where the letter ends and the charge begins
Second Peter closes not with an argument but with a farewell charge. The letter was written to churches troubled by teachers who mocked the promise of Christ's return, and the final verses gather the whole letter into one short sequence. Peter has just said that some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand and that unstable people twist them, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction (3:16). Then he turns directly to his readers, calls them beloved, and tells them to be on guard beforehand. The command to grow in 3:18 stands at the end of that turn, not in the middle of a doctrinal debate.
The shape of these verses is a contrast, and the contrast carries the meaning. A warning against being carried away by error comes first, then a command to grow, then a doxology. Peter tells them to beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, they fall from their own steadfastness (3:17). The picture is not of a person who never believed but of one who had firm footing and could lose it. Growth is therefore named as the positive safeguard: a church increasing in grace and knowledge is harder to sweep off course than one merely defending a position.
The letter's larger concern runs underneath all of this. Peter has been answering the delay of Christ's return and the scoffing that follows from it, and his answer has been holy conduct and patient endurance rather than argument alone. Notice where the sentence lands. It does not end in controversy but in worship: to him be the glory both now and forever (3:18). That ending tells us what the whole letter was for. The warning and the command are not the destination. They lead a reader to the Savior, and the last word belongs to his glory, not to the errors being refuted.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ
The sentence begins with a turn. Just before it, Peter warns his readers about being carried away by the error of lawless people and losing their footing. Then comes the word "but." The alternative to drifting is not simply holding still; it is growing. Peter writes to people he calls beloved, people who already know the danger in advance, and he does not tell them to clench their teeth. He tells them to grow. The command is ongoing, the kind of thing that keeps happening over a lifetime. Living things either increase or wither, and Peter treats spiritual life the same way. Standing still is not one of the options he offers.
The two things we are to grow in are grace and knowledge. Grace here is not a substance we pile up by effort. It is God's favor toward us in Christ, and Peter makes it the soil of growth rather than the reward for it. We do not grow in order to earn grace; we grow because grace has already been given. Knowledge, likewise, is not the collecting of facts. Its object is a person: the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The two titles matter. The one who shows favor is the one we are coming to know, and the one we know is the one who holds all authority to save. Grace and knowledge meet in him, not in our techniques.
This is where the command needs care. Peter commands growth and warns against drifting, but he does not promise that steady effort will produce visible results on our schedule. A believer who feels stuck is not being told here that God has withdrawn his favor. The warning in the previous verse is about being carried off by error, not about moving slowly. Nor does the command guarantee emotional relief or measurable success. What it does say is that the direction of a life matters, and that the one we are growing toward is patient with the growth he commands. Grace comes first; our response is to keep turning toward him.
Grow in grace and knowledge: the command Peter gives after a warning
Peter writes the command to grow as an imperative, not a wish. He has just said that some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand and that ignorant and unsettled people twist them, and the other Scriptures too, to their own destruction (3:16). Then he calls his readers beloved and tells them to be on guard beforehand, so they are not carried off by the error of lawless people and lose their own firm footing (3:17). Only after that warning does he say to grow. The command is the positive form of the safeguard, set between a danger and a doxology.
The growth he commands has two joined halves: grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter does not set resting in undeserved favor against coming to know Christ more truly. Grace is what God gives in Christ; knowledge is what faith lays hold of, and Peter treats them as one movement. Because the letter is answering scoffing at the delay of Christ's return with a call to holy conduct and patience, growth here is not private self-improvement. A church increasing in grace and knowledge is harder to sweep away by error.
The sentence ends in praise: to him be the glory both now and forever (3:18). That ending tells us what growth is for. It is not finally about our visible improvement, our comfort, or proof that we are doing well. It is about Christ being honored. So the command can be obeyed by a struggling believer with no obvious progress to show, and it can be obeyed by a strong one without pride. The letter's whole argument about the delay of Christ's return and the scoffing that follows ends in worship, not in controversy.
Where readers differ on how growth happens
Peter closes his letter with an imperative, not a suggestion: grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Two things sit together here that readers sometimes pull apart. Growth is in grace, which is God's prior action, and in knowledge, which is the believer's deepening grasp of who Christ is. Evangelicals agree the command stands and that these two belong together. They differ on the ordinary shape of growth. Some stress the means God gives to the whole church, such as Scripture, prayer, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and gathered worship. Others stress personal disciplines and small-group accountability. The text commands growth but names no method or program, so no single approach can claim this verse as its warrant.
The warning just before this verse raises a second disagreement. Peter tells his beloved readers to beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, they fall from their own steadfastness. Some read this as evidence that genuine believers can lose salvation. Others read it as evidence that such a fall reveals a faith that was never firm. The text itself does not settle the question. What it does make plain is that drifting is a real danger and steadfastness is worth guarding. Notice also what Peter does not say: he gives no timeline, no measurable target, and no promise that steady effort will produce visible results or emotional relief. Growth is commanded; outcomes are left to God.
What stays central is the aim. Peter does not end with the believer's progress but with Christ's glory, both now and forever. That order matters for anyone who feels stuck. The command to grow is real, and so is the warning against drifting, but neither is a tool for shaming a struggling believer. Grace comes first: the one we are told to know is the one who has already acted on our behalf. So the honest response is not self-reliance but continued attention to Christ through the ordinary means he gives, leaving the pace and the visible fruit in his hands.
Growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ
The last verses of 2 Peter 3:17–18 turn from warning to direction. Peter has just told his readers to beware of being carried away by error, and the positive command that follows is not a list of disciplines but a single aim: grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. The order matters. Grace comes first, then knowledge. Growth is measured by a deepening hold on what Christ has already done, not by self-improvement. Peter calls him Lord and Savior in the same breath, so the one we are to know better is the one who rules and rescues. That is where growth begins.
Notice that both halves of the command have Christ as their object. Grace is not a vague kindness in the air; it is the favor that comes to us through him. Knowledge is not information about him but knowing him as Lord and Savior. So the command is not "try harder" but stay close to the one who saved you. Peter's readers already knew these things; he says so in 3:17. Growth, then, is not starting over but going deeper into a gospel already received. This guards against both pride in progress and despair over slowness, because the ground of growth is Christ himself, not our performance.
The verse ends in a doxology: glory to him both now and forever. In context that glory most naturally belongs to Christ, which fits Peter's habit of giving Jesus the fullest honor. That closing line keeps growth from becoming self-focused. The point of maturing is not a better version of ourselves but the glory of the one in whom we grow. If you are struggling, this command is not a verdict on your faith; it is an invitation to keep turning toward the Savior who holds you. Growth may be slow and uneven, but the one we grow in does not change.
Grow in grace and knowledge: what faithful response looks like
Peter does not offer growth as an option for the especially devout. He writes an imperative: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That is a command, and commands call for a plan rather than a mood. The honest response is not to wait until you feel spiritual but to keep the ordinary means in place: keep reading Scripture, keep praying, keep gathering with a church where Christ is taught. None of this earns God's favor. Grace is the ground of the obedience, not the reward for it. Peter has just warned against being carried away by error, and steady habits are how a believer stays anchored when feelings lag.
Notice that the command joins two things: grace and knowledge. Pursue both. Information about God without trust in him hardens into mere study, and religious feeling without truth drifts wherever the current goes. Peter has already spoken of unsettled people who twist hard texts to their own destruction, so watch what teaching you take in. Stay close to mature believers who can correct you. This is not shame for the struggling; it is a call to stay planted. Growth often comes quietly, through faithfulness you cannot measure, and the outcome is left to God's timing, not promised as success or ease.
The sentence does not end with your progress. It ends in praise: "To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen." That closing tells you how to measure growth. Ask whether Christ is becoming more precious to you, not whether results are visible. A believer who feels stuck may still be learning to treasure him; a believer who looks successful may not be. Peter sets growth against drifting, and the doxology keeps the focus where it belongs, on the Lord who gives the grace we are told to grow in. Keep going, and leave the harvest to him.
Biblical fidelity check
Read carefully, 2 Peter 3:18 sits at the end of a letter about scoffers and delay, and its opening word turns from the warning of 3:17: rather than be carried away, grow. The command is ongoing, not a single event, and it names grace and knowledge together, with "Lord and Savior" identifying the person known. The risks here are turning "grow" into a method, treating grace as a reward for effort, or reading the verse apart from the warning it answers. Peter gives no program, only a direction and an aim.
Evangelical readers agree growth is commanded, but they differ on how it ordinarily happens. Some stress Scripture, prayer, the sacraments or ordinances, and gathered worship; others stress personal disciplines and small-group accountability. Readers also differ on whether 3:17's warning means genuine believers can lose salvation or that such a fall reveals a faith never firm. The text settles neither question. What stays central is that growth is commanded, that it is growth in grace and knowledge of Christ rather than self-reliance, and that its aim is his glory.
Studies that take up 2 Peter 3:18 from another angle
For further study, read the warning that precedes this command in 2 Peter 3:14–17 and Peter's earlier call to make every effort in 2 Peter 1:5–8. Compare how Paul prays for growing knowledge of Christ in Philippians 3:8–11 and Colossians 1:9–10, and notice how grace and knowledge hold together in 2 Peter 1: Faith, Virtue, and Divine Promises, 2 Peter 2: False Teachers and Their Destruction, 2 Peter 3: The Day of the Lord and 2 Peter Bible Study Guide: Summary, Themes, Outline.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean practically to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Growing in grace and knowledge means steadily coming to know Jesus Christ better and living from his undeserved favor rather than from your own effort. Peter sets this command right after warning against being carried away by error, so growth is the ordinary way a believer stays steady. Practically, it looks like returning again and again to what Scripture says about Christ, letting that shape how you trust him and how you treat others. It is gradual, lifelong, and always dependent on grace already given, not on achieving a spiritual level.
Can a Christian lose their steadfastness, and what is 2 Peter 3:17 warning me about?
Yes, Peter warns believers that they can be carried away by the error of lawless people and lose their own firm footing, so 3:17 is a call to watchfulness, not a promise that steadfastness is automatic. He addresses them as beloved and tells them to be on guard because they already know these things beforehand. The danger named is being swept along by false teaching, not committing an unforgivable sin. The safeguard he gives is positive: grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, who holds the glory forever.
How does spiritual growth actually happen, according to the Bible?
Peter answers by naming two things growth grows in: grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Growth is not self-improvement by willpower but a life that keeps receiving God's grace and keeps learning who Jesus is. Peter writes this right after warning about being carried away by error, so growth is also steady, settled movement toward Christ rather than drift. It is God's work in Christ that we respond to, and the glory stays his.
