69 Bible Verses about Growth

until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ. We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error. We must lovingly hold to the truth and grow up into perfect union with him who is the head??hrist himself.

So, for my part, brothers, I could not treat you as spiritual persons; I had to treat you just as creatures of flesh and blood, as babies in Christian living. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Why, you are not ready for it now,

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside my childish ways.

Brothers, you must not be children mentally. In evil be babies, but mentally be mature.

For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food. For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant. But full-grown men have a right to solid food, for their faculties are trained by practice to distinguish right and wrong.

and like new-born babes crave the pure spiritual milk that will make you grow up to salvation,

And what falls among the thorns means those who listen and pass on, and the worries and wealth and pleasures of life stifle them and they yield nothing. But the seed in the good soil means those who listen to the message and keep it in good, true hearts, and yield unfailingly.

And what was sown among the thorns means the man who listens to the message, and then the worries of the time and the pleasure of being rich choke the message out, and it yields nothing. And what was sown in good ground means the man who listens to the message and understands it, and yields one a hundred, and another sixty, and another thirty-fold."

but the worries of the time and the pleasure of being rich and passions for other things creep in and choke the message out and it yields nothing. And the ones sown in good ground are the people who listen to the message and welcome it and yield thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.

He who supplies the sower with seed and so with bread to eat will supply you with seed, and multiply it and enlarge the harvest of your uprightness.

I am glad to be weak, if you are strong! That is what I pray for??he perfecting of your characters.

And in spreading the news of him, we warn everyone and teach everyone all our wisdom, in order to bring everyone to Christian perfection.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always standing up for you in his prayers that you may stand fast, like men of mature convictions, whatever God's will for you may be.

I do not indulge in extravagant boasts over work done by others, but I do hope that as your faith increases, my influence may be immensely enlarged through you, and I may preach the gospel in the lands beyond you without having to boast over work already done in another's field.

We always have to thank God for you, brothers, as it is right that we should, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

You must grow in the blessing and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory to him now and forever.

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself, enlightening the eyes of your mind so that you may know what the hope is to which he calls you, and how gloriously rich his inheritance is among God's people,

and beg him out of his wealth of glory to strengthen you mightily through his Spirit in your inner nature and through your faith to let Christ in his love make his home in your hearts. Your roots must be deep and your foundations strong, so that you and all God's people may be strong enough to grasp what breadth, length, height, and depth mean,read more.
and to understand Christ's love, so far beyond our understanding, so that you may be filled with the very fulness of God.

so that the lives you live may be worthy of your Master and wholly pleasing to him, and you may be fruitful in all kinds of good deeds, and may grow into fuller knowledge of God.

For his divine power has given us every requisite for life and piety, through our coming to know him who through his glory and excellence called us to him.

and you are doing it to all the brothers all over Macedonia. But we do entreat you, brothers, to surpass yourselves

And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight,

May the Lord make your love for one another and for all men wide and full like my love for you,

piety with a spirit of brotherhood, and the spirit of brotherhood with love. For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Such people lose their connection with the head, from which the whole body through its ligaments and sinews must be governed and united if it is to grow in the divine way.

I did the planting, Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the plants grow. So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything, but only God who makes the plants grow.

For I am certain that he who has begun the good work in you will finish it for the Day of Jesus Christ.

Free yourselves, therefore, from all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of any kind,

for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body's doings to death, you will live. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

So since we have promises like these, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves of everything that can defile body or spirit, and by reverence for God make our consecration complete.

Those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the physical nature with its propensities and cravings.

You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions. You must adopt a new attitude of mind, and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

So treat as dead your physical nature, as far as immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed are concerned; for it is really idolatry. It is on account of these things that God's anger is coming. And you once practiced them as others do, when you lived that old earthly life.read more.
But now you too must put them all aside??nger, rage, spite, rough, abusive talk??hese must be banished from your lips. You must not lie to one another. For you have stripped off your old self with its ways and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully.

Let us therefore leave elementary Christian teaching alone and advance toward maturity. We must not be always relaying foundations, of repentance for wrong-doing, and of faith in God, with the teaching of baptism and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.

I have much to say to you about this, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, because you have become so slow of apprehension. For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food. For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant.read more.
But full-grown men have a right to solid food, for their faculties are trained by practice to distinguish right and wrong.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship.

and steadfastness must have full play, so that you may be fully and perfectly developed without any defects.

So, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient, with reverence and awe make every effort to insure your salvation, not simply as though I were with you, but all the more because I am away.

Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ.

For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with piety, piety with a spirit of brotherhood, and the spirit of brotherhood with love.read more.
For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he has given us some men as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as pastors and teachers, in order to fit his people for the work of service, for building the body of Christ,

You must pursue love, while you are cultivating the spiritual endowments, and especially inspired preaching. For anyone who speaks ecstatically is speaking not to men but to God, for no one can understand him, though he is uttering secret truths. But the inspired preacher does his fellow-men good and encourages and comforts them.read more.
Anyone who speaks ecstatically does himself good, but the inspired preacher does a congregation good. I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically??nless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ. We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error. We must lovingly hold to the truth and grow up into perfect union with him who is the head??hrist himself.read more.
For it is under his control that the whole system, adjusted and united by each ligament of its equipment, develops in proportion to the functioning of each particular part, and so builds itself up through love.

As Jesus grew older he gained in wisdom and won the approval of God and men.

And the child grew up and became strong in the Spirit, and he lived in the desert until the day when he proclaimed himself to Israel.

But Saul grew more and more powerful, and bewildered the Jews who lived in Damascus by his proofs that Jesus was the Christ.

came among you, to thrive and bear its fruit among you, as it does all over the world, from the time when you first heard about the mercy of God,

Another figure which he used in speaking to them was this: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the largest of plants and grows into a tree, so that the wild birds come and roost in its branches." Another figure which he used with them was this: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and buried in a bushel of flour until it had all risen."

"How can we find any comparison," he said, "for the reign of God, or what figure can we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the world, yet once sown, comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under the shelter of it."

He said, therefore, "What is the Kingdom of God like, and to what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and dropped in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted on its branches." And he went on, "To what can I compare the Kingdom of God?read more.
It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a bushel of flour, till it all rose."

"The reign of God," he said, "is like a man scattering seed on the ground, and then sleeping at night and getting up by day, while the seed sprouts and comes up, without his knowing it. The ground of itself is productive, putting forth first a blade, then a head, then fully developed wheat in the head.read more.
But as soon as the crop will let him, the man goes in with his sickle, for the harvest time has come.

But many of those who had heard what they said believed it, and their number grew to be about five thousand.

So they welcomed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people joined them that day.

and men and women in increasing numbers believed in the Lord and joined them. Signs and wonders in great numbers continued to be done among the people by the apostles,

So God's message continued to spread; the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a great many priests accepted the faith.

So the church all over Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace and became established. It lived in reverence for the Lord and, stimulated by the holy Spirit, it grew steadily in numbers.

The Lord's hand was with them, and there were a great many who believed and turned to the Lord.

At Iconium in the same way, they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

So the churches became stronger and stronger in the faith, and their numbers increased from day to day.