69 Bible Verses about Growth

until we all attain to unity in faith and to perfect knowledge of the Son of God, namely, to a mature manhood and to a perfect measure of Christ's moral stature; so that we may not be babies any longer, or like sailors tossed about and driven around by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men through their cunning in inventing new methods of error. But, on the other hand, we shall go on holding to the truth and in love growing up into perfect union with Him, that is, Christ Himself who is the Head.

So I myself, brothers, could not deal with you as spiritual persons, but as creatures of human clay, as merely baby Christians. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you could not take it. Why, you cannot take it even 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 laid aside my childish ways.

Brothers, stop being children in intelligence, but as to evil keep on being babies; and yet as to intelligence be men of maturity.

For although you ought to be teachers of others because you have been Christians so long, you actually need someone to teach you over and over again the very elements of the truths that God has given us, and you have gotten into such a state that you are in constant need of milk instead of solid food. For everyone who uses milk alone is inexperienced in the message of right-doing; he is only an infant. But solid food belongs to full-grown men who on account of constant use have their faculties trained to distinguish good and evil.

and like new-born babies thirst for pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to final salvation,

And the portion of them falling among the thorns illustrates those who hear it, but as soon as they pass on they are choked out by the worries and wealth and pleasures of life, and thus yield no mature fruit. But the portion in rich soil illustrates those who listen to the message, keep it in good and honest hearts, and in patience yield fruit.

And what was sown among the thorns illustrates the man who hears the message, and the worries of the times and the pleasures of being rich choke the truth out, and he yields no fruit. And what was sown in rich soil illustrates the man who hears the message and understands it, and yields fruit, one a hundred, one sixty, another thirty-fold."

but the worries of the times, the deceiving pleasures of being rich, and evil desires for other things, creep in and choke the truth out, and it yields nothing. And the people sown in rich soil are the people who listen to the message and welcome it and yield thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold."

He who always supplies the sower with seed and the eater with bread will supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest which your deeds of charity yield.

I am glad to be consciously weak, if you are really strong. This is my continual prayer, the perfecting of your characters.

We are proclaiming Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with ample wisdom, in order to present to God everyone mature through union with Christ.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.

I am not going too far in my boasting, and actually boasting of other men's labors, but I am cherishing the hope that your faith may so continue to grow that through you my work within my sphere may be so enlarged as to run over, so that I can preach the good news in the regions beyond you, without boasting in another man's sphere of work already done by him.

We always ought to be thanking God for you, brothers, as it is right to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing

but instead, you must continue to grow in the spiritual strength and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever!

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may grant you the Spirit to give wisdom and revelation which come through a growing knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what the hope is to which He calls you, how glorious rich God's portion in His people is,

and beg Him to grant you, in accordance with the riches of His perfect character, to be mightily strengthened by His Spirit in your inmost being, and that Christ in His love, through your faith, may make His permanent home in your hearts. You must be deeply rooted, your foundations must be strong, so that you with all God's people may be strong enough to grasp the idea of the breadth and length, the height and depth,read more.
yes, to come at last to know the love of Christ, although it far surpasses human understanding, so that you may be filled with the perfect fullness of God.

so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord to His full satisfaction, by perennially bearing fruit in every good enterprise and by a steady growth in fuller knowledge of God;

because His divine power has given us everything that is needful for life and piety, through our full knowledge of Him who through His glory and excellence has called us to Him.

as you are practicing it toward all the brothers all over Macedonia. We beg you, brothers, to continue to live better and better;

And it is my prayer that your love may overflow still more and more, directed by fuller knowledge and keener insight,

May the Lord make you increase and overflow in love for one another and for all men, as my love for you does,

piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love. For if you have these qualities and they continue to increase in you, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Such a person is not continuing in connection with the Head, from which the whole body, when supplied and united through its joints and sinews, grows with a growth that God produces.

I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who kept the plants growing. So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for much, but God is everything in keeping the plants growing.

For I am certain of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will go on until the day of Jesus Christ to complete it.

So once for all get rid of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all sorts of slander,

for if you live by such a standard, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

So, since we have such promises as these, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles our bodies and spirits, and in reverence to God carry on our consecration to completeness.

And those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the lower nature with its passions and evil cravings.

to lay aside, with your former way of living, your old self which is on the way to destruction in accordance with its deceptive impulses; and to have a new attitude of mind and put on the new self which has been created in the likeness of God, which fruits in right and holy living inspired by the truth.

So once for all put to death your lower, earthly nature with respect to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is real idolatry. It is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming. You too used to practice these sins, when you used to live that sort of life.read more.
But now you too must once for all put them all aside -- anger, rage, malice, and abusive, filthy talk from your lips. Stop lying to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self which is in the process of being made new in the likeness of its Creator, so that you may attain a perfect knowledge of Him.

So then let us once for all quit the elementary teaching about Christ and continue progressing toward maturity; let us stop relaying a foundation of repentance from works that mean only death, and of faith in God, of teaching about ceremonial washings and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.

I have much to say to you about Him, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, since you have become so dull in your spiritual senses. For although you ought to be teachers of others because you have been Christians so long, you actually need someone to teach you over and over again the very elements of the truths that God has given us, and you have gotten into such a state that you are in constant need of milk instead of solid food. For everyone who uses milk alone is inexperienced in the message of right-doing; he is only an infant.read more.
But solid food belongs to full-grown men who on account of constant use have their faculties trained to distinguish good and evil.

I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God has shown you, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, devoted and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

but you must let your endurance come to its perfect product, so that you may be fully developed and perfectly equipped, without any defects.

So, my dearly loved friends, as you have always been obedient, so now with reverence and awe keep on working clear down to the finishing point of your salvation not only as though I were with you but much more because I am away;

It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus.

Now for this very reason you must do your level best to supplement your faith with moral character, moral character with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patient endurance with piety, piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love.read more.
For if you have these qualities and they continue to increase in you, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And He has given some men to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, for the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ,

Keep on pursuing love, but still keep cultivating your spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesying. For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths. But whoever prophesies is speaking to men for their upbuilding. encouragement, and comfort.read more.
Whoever speaks in ecstasy builds up himself alone, but whoever prophesies builds up the congregation too. I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift.

until we all attain to unity in faith and to perfect knowledge of the Son of God, namely, to a mature manhood and to a perfect measure of Christ's moral stature; so that we may not be babies any longer, or like sailors tossed about and driven around by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men through their cunning in inventing new methods of error. But, on the other hand, we shall go on holding to the truth and in love growing up into perfect union with Him, that is, Christ Himself who is the Head.read more.
For it is under His direction that the whole body is perfectly adjusted and united by every joint that furnishes its supplies; and by the proper functioning of each particular part there is brought about the growing of the body for its building up in love.

Meanwhile Jesus grew constantly in wisdom and in body, and in favor with God and man.

Now the child continued to grow and to gain strength in the Spirit, and he lived in the desert until the day when he announced himself to Israel.

But Saul grew stronger and stronger and continued to put to utter confusion the Jews who lived in Damascus, by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

which reached you, and since it is bearing fruit and growing among you, just as it is all over the world, from the day you first heard of God's favor and in reality came to know it,

He told them this story, as follows: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to 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; yea, it grows into a tree, so that the wild birds come and roost in its branches." He told another story: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to yeast which a woman took and worked into a bushel of flour until it all had risen."

Then He kept on saying: "How can I further picture the kingdom of God, or by what story can I illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is properly sown, it comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under its shade."

So He went on to say, "What is the kingdom of God like? To what may I compare it? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and dropped in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted in its branches." And again He said, "To what may I compare the kingdom of God?read more.
It is like yeast which a woman took and hid in a bushel of flour until it all had risen."

He also was saying: "The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground, then continues sleeping by night and getting up by day, while the seed sprouts and comes up without his knowing how. The ground of itself produces, first the stalk, then the head; at last there is the matured grain of wheat in the head.read more.
But as soon as the crop Will permit it, he puts in the sickle, for the reaping time has come."

But many of those who heard their message believed, and the number of the men grew to about five thousand.

So they accepted his message and were baptized, and about three thousand persons united with them on that day.

but still a vast number of people, both men and women, who believed in the Lord, continued to join them,

So God's message continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly; a large number, even of priests, continued to surrender to the faith.

So the church all over Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed peace, and as it continued to be built up spiritually and to live in reverence for the Lord, it continued to increase in numbers through the encouragement that the Holy Spirit gave.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

At Iconium too they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks came to believe.

So the churches through faith continued to grow in strength and to increase in numbers from day to day.