69 Bible Verses about Growth

So we shall no longer be children, tossed up and down, and blown about by every wind of teaching, tricked by the craft of men in the snares of misleading error; but holding the truth in love we shall grow up in every part into him who is our Head, even Christ.

As for me, brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual men, but as to creatures of flesh, mere babes in Christ. I fed you milk, not meat; for you were unable to bear it.

When I was a child I spoke like a child, felt like a child, thought like a child; now that I am become a man, I have done with childish things.

Brothers, do not become children in understanding; be babes in malice, but in understanding become mature men.

And this too, although you ought by this time to be teaching others, you are still needing some one to teach you the very rudiments of divine revelation. You need milk, not solid food. For every one who feeds on milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness. He is still an infant. But solid food is for adults, that is, for those who by constant practise have their faculties trained to discriminate between good and evil.

Like new-born babes long for the pure spiritual milk to make you grow up into salvation;

"And that which fell upon thorns is those who have heard, but as they go on their way of word is choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of life; so they bring no fruit of perfection. "And that in the good soil is those who have listened to the message and, in an honest and good heart, hold fast, and bring forth fruit with patience.

"And the seed sown among thorns is he who hears the word, but the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. "But the seed sown in good soil is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit, and makes now an hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty."

When they have heard the Word, the anxieties of life and the snares of wealth, and all sorts of other ambitions, come in to choke the Word, so that it proves unfruitful. But those, on the other hand, who were sown on that good soil, are those who listen to the Word, and welcome it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold."

He who ever supplies seed to the sower, and bread for the food of man, will supply and make plentous your seed, and increase the harvest springing up from your almsgiving.

For I am always glad whenever I am weak, but you are strong. For this also I am praying, for your perfect reformation.

Him I am ever proclaiming, warning every one and teaching every one, in all wisdom; that I may bring every man into his presence, full grown in Christ.

Epaphras, one of yourselves, salutes you, a slave of Christ who is always agonizing for you in his prayers, that you may stand firm, mature, and fully assured in all the will of God.

I am not "boasting beyond measure in the labors of others," but it is my hope that, as your faith goes on increasing among yourselves, by the enlargement of my appointed limits, I may carry the gospel to countries beyond you; and not be boasting of work made ready to my hand within another man's limit.

I ought always to thank God for you, brothers, as is fitting because of the abundant growth of your faith and of the overflowing love with which every one of you is filled toward one another.

But grow continually in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and unto the Day of Eternity, Amen.

I am praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father most glorious, may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, through an intimate knowledge of himself; and that the eyes of your heart may be flooded with light so that you may understand what is the hope of his calling, what the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

praying him to grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in your inmost being; that Christ may make his home in your hearts through your faith; that you may be so deeply rooted and so firmly grounded in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is "the breadth," "the length," "the depth," and "the height,"read more.
and may know the love of Christ which transcends all knowing, so that you may be filled with all the "plenitude" of God.

that you may walk worthy of the Lord in every kind of pleasing; that you may be fruitful in every kind of good work, and may increase in the knowledge of God;

For his power divine has granted to us everything needful for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue.

As indeed you do love all the brothers in Macedonia. But I exhort you, brothers, to abound in this yet more.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound yet more and more in intelligence and insight

Meanwhile, may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as I do toward you.

and to piety brotherly love, and to brotherly love, love itself. For if these virtues are yours in abounding measure, they render you not idle nor unfruitful, until you come into the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

instead of keeping connection with the Head from the whole body draws nourishment for all its needs by the joints which bind it; and is knit together, and grows with a divine growth.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God made the seed grow. So neither is he who planted anything, nor he who watered, but God alone, who is making the seed grow.

Of this I am fully persuaded, that He who has begun a good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Therefore put away all malice, all deceit, insincerity, jealousy, and slander of every sort.

for if you go on living according to the flesh, you are on the road to die; but if by the Spirit you keep putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For only those are sons of God who are led by God's Spirit.

As these promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, and perfect our holiness in the fear of God.

And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and appetites.

You have learned to lay aside, with your former manner of living, the old self who was on his way to ruin, as he followed the desires which deceive; and to be made new in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new self, created after God's likeness, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.

So slay your baser inclinations. fornication, impurity, appetite, unnatural desires, and the greed which is idolatry. These things are ever bringing down the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience, among whom you once led your daily life when you lived in them.read more.
But now you also must renounce them all. Anger, passion, and ill-will must be put away; slander, too, and foul talk, so that they may never soil your lips. Lie not one to another, but strip off the old self with its doings, and put on that new self which is continually made over according to the likeness of its Creator, into full understanding.

So let us get beyond the teaching of the elementary doctrines of Christ, and let us be borne along toward what is mature. Let us not be continually laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith in God, of the teaching regarding ablutions and the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Concerning him I have much to say, and much that is hard to make clear to you, because you have grown dull of hearing. And this too, although you ought by this time to be teaching others, you are still needing some one to teach you the very rudiments of divine revelation. You need milk, not solid food. For every one who feeds on milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness. He is still an infant.read more.
But solid food is for adults, that is, for those who by constant practise have their faculties trained to discriminate between good and evil.

I entreat you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your reasonable service of worship.

But let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, not lacking in anything.

And so, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, with reverence and self-distrust work out your own salvation;

I do not say that I have already won, or am already perfect, but I am passing on to lay hold on the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me.

For this very reason do your best to add to your faith manliness, and to manliness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control stedfastness, and to stedfastness piety, and to piety brotherly love, and to brotherly love, love itself.read more.
For if these virtues are yours in abounding measure, they render you not idle nor unfruitful, until you come into the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is he who made some men apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, in order to equip the saints for the work of serving, for the building up of the Body of Christ??13 till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to the maturity of manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

Hotly pursue this love, yet seek earnestly spiritual gifts, and chiefly that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a "tongue" speaks not to man but to God, for no one understands him, but in the Spirit he utters secret truths. But he who prophesies addresses words to men that build up, encourage, and console.read more.
He who speaks in a tongue upbuilds himself; but he who prophesies upbuilds the church. Now I should like you all to speak with "tongues"; but I should rather that you prophesied, For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be built up.

So we shall no longer be children, tossed up and down, and blown about by every wind of teaching, tricked by the craft of men in the snares of misleading error; but holding the truth in love we shall grow up in every part into him who is our Head, even Christ. From him the whole body (knit together and compacted by all its joints) makes continual growth of the body so as to build itself up in love, through the energy of his bounteous provision, according to the need of each several part.

And Jesus was ever advancing in wisdom and in status and in favor with God and man.

And the child grew, and became strong in the Spirit, and remained in the desert till the day of his showing to Israel.

But Saul gained more and more influence, and kept putting the Jews who lived in Damascus to confusion by his proof that Jesus was the Christ.

And just as it is spreading through the whole world, bearing fruit and increasing, so also is it among you, from the day in which you heard it, and came truly to know the grace of God,

He set forth to them another parable, saying. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard-seed which a man took and planted in his field. "This is indeed the smallest of seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than any herb, and becomes a tree, so that the winged things of the sky come and roost in its branches." He told them another parable. He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole was leavened."

"To what shall we compare the kingdom of God?" he said again. "in what parable shall we set it forth? It is like a mustard-seed, which, when sown in the soil, is the smallest seed in the world; yet when sown shoots up and becomes larger than any plant, sending out such branches that the wild birds build their nests under its shadow."

This led him to say. "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his own garden. It grew and became a tree, and the wild birds nested in its branches." And again he said: "To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?read more.
"It is like leaven which a took and hid in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened."

"It is with the kingdom of God," he continued, "as if a man should have sown seed in the earth; night and day he sleeps and wakes while the seed is sprouting and growing tall, he knows not how. Of its own accord the earth bears its crops; first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.read more.
Then as soon as the crop is ready the man has the sickle put in at once, because harvest-time is come.

But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Then those who welcomed his message were baptized, and in that day about three thousand souls were added to them;

Yet the people continued to hold them in high honor, and more and more believers in the Lord were joining them, both men and women.

And the word of the Lord continued to spread; and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem was increasing exceedingly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Now throughout the whole of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria the Church continued to enjoy peace and to be spiritually built up. It was increasing in members also, as it kept walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

In Iconium it happened that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great number both of Jews and of Gentiles believed.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and continued to increase in number daily.