in the experience of spiritual growth. For effective growth we must will to remove the hindrances to growth while actively fostering the conditions which promote growth. When the individual maintains the conditions for spiritual growth, the divinely implanted life will assuredly grow and mature. “In the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” depicts the areas of growth. The command to “grow in grace and knowledge” (auxanete en chariti kai gnōsei), not “into grace and knowledge,”