What it means

Even Jesus — in the Christian understanding, the divine made human — grew. He wasn't static. He developed intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually over time. The verse is saying that becoming who you're meant to be is a process, not a moment.

For today

We live in a culture obsessed with arrival — the right title, the right body, the right follower count. We want to already be the finished version of ourselves, and we're quietly ashamed when we're not there yet. This verse pushes back on that. It treats growth itself as the thing, not a problem to be solved on the way to something else. Wisdom takes exposure to hard situations. Relationships take repeated repair. Even 'favor' — being someone people trust and respect — is built slowly, not downloaded.

Takeaway

Wherever you are in your development today, you're not behind — you're in the process that everyone, even by this account the most remarkable person who ever lived, had to actually go through.