The Bible Says
Luke 2:52 Meaning

There are no apparent parallel gospel accounts of Luke 2:52.

In Luke 2:52, Jesus continues to grow in wisdom and stature and gains increasing favor with both God and men.

Luke summarizes Jesus’s years beyond His boyhood until the beginning of His ministry with a single statement:

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (v 52).

Luke writes that Jesus kept increasing to signify two things.

First, the expression-kept increasing-demonstrates that Jesus continued to increase in these things as the years went by. That is, Jesus did not stop growing or maturing. He kept increasing.

And the second thing that the expression-kept increasing-signifies is that Jesus was already increasing in these things as a boy. Someone cannot keep doing something they have not already begun.

Luke reported Jesus’s early childhood development earlier in Chapter 2 when he wrote:

“The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
(Luke 2:40)

Luke 2:40 describes Jesus’s development throughout childhood from infancy to boyhood.

Luke 2:52 describes Jesus’s maturation from boyhood to full manhood.

When Jesus was first born, Luke described Jesus as a “baby” (Luke 2:12)-in Greek: βρέφος (G1025) which is pronounced “Bref-os.”

“Brefos” can describe an unborn baby still inside the womb (Luke 1:41) or a newborn infant (1 Peter 2:2). In the context of Luke 2:12, Jesus was a newborn baby.

Next, Luke described Jesus as a “child” (Luke 2:27, 2:40)-in Greek: παιδίον (G3813) which is pronounced “paiee-dee'-on.”

“Paieedon” describes a range from young baby to toddler to small child. In the context of Luke 2:27, Jesus was a forty-day-old baby. In the context of Luke 2:40, Jesus is a growing child.

Then, Luke described Jesus as a “boy” (Luke 2:43)-in Greek: παῖς (G3816) which is pronounced, “paieece.”

“Paieece” describes a more mature child, a boy or girl (depending on context), but someone who is old enough to be given instruction and guidance and be expected to perform various tasks and levels of complexity, but who is not considered mature or old enough to take full responsibility for themselves.

In the context of Luke 2:43, Jesus is a twelve-year-old boy-the age just before religious accountability according to Jewish custom.

Now, here in Luke 2:52, Luke describes Jesus’s maturity from boyhood to His full stature of manhood, which according to Jewish tradition was thirty years of age.

The next time Luke describes Jesus is at the beginning of His public Messianic ministry which was when He “was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23).

By giving the details of Jesus’s birth and sharing a window into His childhood and describing how he matured from a “brefos” (newborn) to an “andros” (adult man), Luke depicts Jesus as fully human.

Luke’s Gospel was written to a Greek audience to demonstrate that Jesus was the perfect human and that the Good Life is attained by believing in Him as the Son of God and the Christ and following His teachings and examples in our own trials and circumstances.

Perhaps more than the other three Gospels combined, the full range of Jesus’s humanity is on display in the Gospel of Luke. And the unparalleled details, events, and summaries of Luke 2 make up a significant part of Jesus’s life.

The Years of Jesus’s Life between His visit to the Temple as a Boy and His Baptism as an Adult

The Bible is mostly silent about the eighteen years between Jesus’s extended visit to Jerusalem for the Passover when He was twelve (Luke 2:41-51) and His baptism (Luke 3:21-22) which was at the start of His public Ministry at thirty (Luke 3:23).

Only a few details can be gleaned from comments which the Bible makes concerning Jesus’s life during these years.

These details include:

• Jesus lived in the town of Nazareth

• Jesus had at least four half-brothers and at least two half-sisters.
  (Matthew 13:55b-56a, Mark 6:3)

• Jesus apprenticed under His adoptive father, Joseph, and worked as a “carpenter”
  (Matthew 13:55a, Mark 6:3a).
  
  The Greek word that is translated as carpenter is τέκτων (G5045). It is pronounced “tek-tōne.” This term describes a workman or technician. It can describe a worker of wood or stone.
  
  Given that there was a stone quarry near Nazareth that was used in the construction of the neighboring Roman town of Sepphoris, which was expanded during Jesus’s youth and early manhood, it is likely that Jesus was a stone mason and construction worker who helped build this pagan city.

• The one significant event in Jesus’s life that the Bible implies, which occurred sometime between His twelfth and thirtieth year, was the apparent death of Joseph, Jesus’s adoptive father. The Bible does not explicitly state when or how Joseph died, but it strongly implies that he was deceased sometime before Jesus was baptized.
  
  This implication is from the fact that Joseph was with Mary when they brought Jesus to Jerusalem at twelve (Luke 2:41, 48) but is absent or not mentioned at notable occasions in Jesus’s ministry where one would expect to see Jesus’s adoptive father, were he to be alive.
  
  These occasions include visits Jesus made to Nazareth and other interactions with Jesus’s family members (Matthew 12:46-50, 13:53-58, Mark 3:31-35, 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-30, John 7:3-5). Joseph never appears in these passages and when he is referred to, he is spoken of in terms that imply that he is no longer living.
  
  Moreover, when Jesus is on the cross, He transfers the responsibility of caring for His mother from Himself to one of His disciples (John 19:26-27). If Mary’s husband Joseph were still living, it is unlikely Jesus would have done this.
  
  If Joseph died shortly after Jesus’s visit to Jerusalem as a twelve-year-old, his untimely death would have caused a serious burden on Jesus’s family. Mary would have been trying to raise Jesus (the Messiah) and her other six or more young children on her own. Mary and Joseph were poor at the time Jesus was dedicated-they could only afford two turtledoves or pigeons instead of a more expensive lamb (Luke 2:23-24).
  
  It may have been the devastation of losing their father at an early age and the following financial hardship that contributed to Jesus’s brothers’ unbelief in Him as the Messiah (See Luke 4:23, John 7:5).

The Four Aspects of Life in Which Jesus Kept Increasing

As He matured beyond His boyhood and throughout His adult life, Luke writes that Jesus kept increasing in four areas: wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with men.

Collectively these are four areas every human is designed to increase in. All four areas comprise the Good Life as God originally intended before sin and death marred God’s perfect creation. Between the Fall of Man (Genesis 3) and the restoration of the New Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1-22:5), every human being experiences deficiencies and extra challenges in one or more of these areas as a result of sin and its effects in the world.

Interestingly, all four of these areas would have resonated with Luke’s primary audience of Greek believers as they pertained to the Greek notion of “the Good Life.”

The Greek notion of the Good Life (“eudaimonia” in Greek) refers to a state of human flourishing, where a person lives in accordance with virtue, reason, and excellence. Philosophers like Aristotle taught that the Good Life is achieved not through wealth or pleasure, but through the pursuit of moral virtue and fulfilling one's purpose. It involves developing character, practicing wisdom, and contributing meaningfully to society.

The Good Life, in this Greek philosophical view, is not just about pleasure, but about living well and nobly over a lifetime. And the Good Life entails the satisfaction that comes when a person truly understands and intentionally fulfills their greater purpose as they live in community with others. Luke is showing his Gentile audience that the actual way to the Good Life comes through Jesus, who Himself is the embodiment of the Good Life.

1.  In Wisdom

Jesus kept increasing in wisdom.

The increase in wisdom refers to Jesus’s mind and intellect, and His perspective.

The mind is the seat of a person’s thoughts and consciousness. Intellect refers to the mind’s capacity to acquire and hold knowledge and have awareness (perspective).

Because Jesus was both fully God and fully human, Jesus had two natures and two minds.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He is the Word of God (John 1:1). Therefore, Jesus had the divine mind. God’s divine mind is perfect and complete. It knows all things. And it can never diminish in any way.

Jesus also had a human mind.

A human mind is limited in its capacities.

A human mind’s most basic capacities include:

• Consciousness (self-awareness)
• Thinking (reasoning)
• Remembering (recalling past thoughts or experiences)
• Imagining (envisioning potential that is not yet present or apparent)

But a human mind can only entertain so many thoughts and/or ideas at one time. It gets tired and needs rest. It can grow sick. It forgets. Over time, human minds can increase (learn) or diminish in their capacities.

When Luke writes that Jesus kept increasing in wisdom, he was referring to the wisdom of Jesus’s human mind and not His divine mind which is eternally complete.

As Jesus grew from a boy to full manhood, His human mind grew. It kept increasing in its capacities to acquire knowledge, maintain understanding, analyze thoughts, recall past ideas or experiences, and see new possibilities. In other words, Jesus kept learning.

And as Jesus kept increasing in wisdom, His mind also kept increasing in awareness or consciousness. Jesus continued to grow in self-awareness as a human, and in His role as the Messiah, and as the Son of God.

Jesus sought God’s perspective about reality, and increased in His human capacity to act upon that true perspective.

If knowledge is perceiving individual things as they truly are, and if understanding is seeing how one or more things truly relate to other things, and wisdom is seeing how to best use and apply knowledge and understanding to bring about the best outcomes, then it follows that wisdom also leads to us having God’s perspective about reality/our circumstances.

Acquiring wisdom is a choice. Wisdom is choosing to pursue and adopt His perspective about reality and what is good. Jesus made this choice. He put in the effort to grow. And as He grew, people noticed. In pursuing wisdom, Jesus would have practiced this proverb:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”
(Proverbs 9:10a)

To “fear” someone or something is to adjust one’s own actions or priorities because of a perceived consequence that can be brought about by that someone or something. We know from passages like Philippians 2:5-10 and Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus chose the difficult path of learning obedience even to death on the cross because of the “joy” set before Him. That “joy” was sharing His Father’s throne.

Jesus grew in wisdom because He put the consequence promised by His Father far above consequences that could be placed on Him by mere humans. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that because of “the joy set before Him,” Jesus “endured the cross” and by doing so He was “despising the shame” heaped upon Him by the people rejecting Him. The “joy set before Him” in Hebrews 12:2 was to sit down “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It is because of God’s promised reward that Jesus chose wisdom. By placing God’s promised reward above any reward promised by man or Satan, Jesus chose to follow in “the fear of the LORD.”

Another way to say this is that the beginning of wisdom is choosing God’s perspective. (See: “What Does it Mean to Fear the LORD?”).

Philippians 2:5 tells believers to choose the same “attitude” that Jesus chose when He decided to follow His Father’s promise and learn obedience even to death. The Greek word translated “attitude” can also be translated as “mindset” or “perspective.”

The book of James tells us that if anyone lacks wisdom (God’s perspective on our trials), we can ask God for it and God will grant it if we ask in faith (James 1:2, 5-8).

There are three things-and only three things-we can choose or determine:

• Who we trust
• What perspective we will adopt
• What actions we will do

Trust, perspective, and actions are the only three things we get to determine in this universe. Therefore, the most important thing we can do is trust what is true, adopt perspectives that are real and true, and take actions based on those perspectives. When we believe God, we can live in reality and actually experience the full redemption of our design. In Greek philosophical terms, we can actually live the Good Life, fully and eternally.

Because wisdom is a choice about who a person will trust and what perspective he will adopt-whether a person is wise or foolish results from their choices. If we believe the stories we tell ourselves and the lies of the world, we will (predictably) take actions that are self-destructive.

Jesus chose to seek and adopt God’s perspective about His circumstances, and as a result He kept increasing in wisdom.

Jesus’s wisdom was apparent as a twelve-year-old boy when He amazed the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:46-47). And by the time He came forward to be baptized by John, it is evident that Jesus had a godly perspective on who He was and what it was that God wanted Him to do. For instance, when John tried to dissuade Him from being baptized because He knew Jesus had nothing for which He need to repent (Matthew 3:14), Jesus told His cousin:

“Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all in righteousness.”
(Matthew 3:15)

Jesus also grew in His awareness of other people-their needs, their motives, and their perspectives. Jesus crafted His messages and words to get to the heart of those who loved Him, those who sought Him as well as those who resisted Him.

By the time He went public with His ministry, Jesus knew fully of the deception that was in the heart of man. Accordingly, as an act of wisdom, He refused to entrust Himself to people (John 2:24-25). He even rebuked His disciples for trying to persuade Him from His divine mission (Matthew 16:23).

Jesus’s increase in awareness of other people likely assisted Him to perceive the crafty arguments that His enemies would try to use to frame Him. His awareness also would help Him dismiss them and reframe them according to what was true, and as a result silence His adversaries (Luke 20:20-26).

Throughout His ministry, the wisdom of Jesus’s teachings and the authority by which He taught amazed everyone-both to the joy of those who believed Him to be the Messiah and to the anger of those who hated Him and what His message meant for their lives.

Jesus’s wisdom and godly perspective about who He was, His circumstances, and the world, as well as His mission, kept increasing from His boyhood to His public appearance as the Messiah.

Increasing in wisdom was particularly meaningful from a Greek perspective-the perspective of Luke’s primary audience of Greek believers.

Greek philosophers, such as Socrates and Aristotle, consistently taught that it was impossible to live what they identified as “the Good Life” without wisdom. According to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, it required wisdom to understand the purpose of life and how to apply it to one’s circumstances. The many did not have wisdom. But those who did have wisdom forsook the lesser goods and sought the things that truly mattered.

As Greeks saw things, Jesus’s seeking and His increasing in wisdom is what made it possible for Him to become the perfect human and attain the Good Life.

2.  In Stature 

Jesus kept increasing in stature.

The increase in stature refers to Jesus’s physical and bodily growth.

Jews considered a man to be full stature and at the peak of His physical health and mind at age thirty. Jesus “began His ministry… around thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23).

From age twelve to thirty, Jesus continued growing through the normal stages of human development-from adolescence to full physical maturity and stature. Like other human beings around the age of twelve, Jesus experienced puberty when His body transitioned from boyhood to manhood.

As Jesus kept increasing in stature, He likely gained height, strength, coordination, and endurance as His body transitioned from youth to adulthood. This growth would have included the kinds of changes common to all humans: muscular development through manual labor, voice deepening, and the formation of adult features. Jesus’s body also became sexually mature (but Jesus remained unmarried and chaste).

As the son of a tekton (craftsman), Jesus would have engaged in the physical work of construction. Jesus’s increase in stature would have naturally included practical strength suited to His trade and daily life.

Jesus’s increase in stature speaks to the Son of God’s full identification with humanity. He did not bypass or shortcut the human experience. He became fully human, embracing it in its entirety.

Jesus’s physical development-from childhood vulnerability to the full stature of manhood-qualified Him to be a true High Priest who understands the human condition (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15, 5:1-2, 5:7-8, 7:26). By increasing in stature alongside His neighbors, Jesus not only shared in the ordinary rhythms of human life, He also prepared His body to become the perfect sacrifice for humanity (Romans 8:3, Hebrews 2:14,10:5).

The Greeks would have understood Jesus’s increasing in stature as another important aspect of their notion of living the Good Life. While the Greeks put too much emphasis on the body and health, they were not entirely wrong to associate both with human flourishing; after all, when God created humans, He made us as embodied beings and not disembodied spirits.

Paul seemed to acknowledge as much when he wrote to Timothy:

“for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
(1 Timothy 4:8)

Further, in the resurrection, believers will have “spiritual bodies” (1 Corinthians 15:44). Some Greeks obsessed over the human body, and they wrongly believed that to live the Good Life one needed to have a healthy and strong body. The Bible teaches that using the body we have (however healthy or unhealthy it may be) to love Him and serve others is all that God requires to gain the fullest experience of life. And that if we do these things we will be blessed-supremely happy and fulfilled (Matthew 5:3-11).

A person’s body is intended to be a temple of God. And for believers, their body has sacred significance. For a believer, God’s Spirit dwells inside the temple that is their body (1 Corinthians 6:19). Therefore, we are to keep our body holy and not use it for sin-especially sexual sins (1 Corinthians 6:16-18).

Further, taking care of one’s body (however healthy or infirm it may be) and/or using our body’s strengths and talents to serve the needs of others is an act of worship.

A person is only given one body. God intricately made every person’s body, and every person is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14). Taking care of and using the body that we have (not the one we wish we had) to serve others is a major part of how we fulfill the commandment to love God with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18b).

Jesus Himself increased in stature as He grew. He kept His body holy and pure. And He used His body to serve the world as our sacrifice.

3.  In Favor with God 

Jesus kept increasing in favor with God.

The increase in favor with God refers to Jesus’s spiritual development.

Before we explain what it meant that Jesus spiritually developed, we should first explain what is meant by God’s favor.

The Greek word that is translated here as favor is a form of χάρις (G5485). It is pronounced “char-eece” or “kar-eece.” This is the same word that is often translated as “grace.” Grace is favor.

To have favor with someone means to have their approval, goodwill, kindness, or special regard. When one person has another person’s favor, it means the other person delights in the person they favor. They choose to bless the person they favor. They treat the person they favor with gracious preference, or reward, often beyond what is strictly deserved.

Jesus kept increasing in favor with God. This describes how Jesus kept pleasing God and increasingly enjoyed God’s approval of His character and choices. Jesus kept increasing in favor with God in His human nature and not His divine nature.

In His divine person as the Son of God and as a member of the Trinity, Jesus shared eternal closeness with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. There was perfect love and approval within the Godhead. And therefore, there was no room for any increase of favor between them. Remarkably, Jesus still chose to obey His Father and leave this circumstance of perfect comfort and take on human flesh (Philippians 2:5-8).

Then, as a human being, in His human nature, Jesus kept increasing God’s favor of Him through His perfect obedience to His Father’s will as He grew into the full stature of manhood. As Jesus experienced the joys and sufferings of the human experience-including the apparent loss of Joseph, the man who raised Him as his own son- Jesus trusted God and acted as God wanted Him to act.

Consequently, Jesus kept increasing in favor with God as God approved of His choices.

That Jesus continued to increase in favor with God speaks to Jesus’s spiritual growth. He grew closer and closer to God, His Father. Jesus’s human spirit became increasingly sensitive to God’s Spirit and God’s will for His life. This developed to the point where Jesus’s human spirit was constantly engaged with His Father and the Holy Spirit, so that He could always know and do what they asked Him to do in every circumstance. Jesus lived in favor and perfect harmony with God.

Human beings were created and designed to live in fellowship and harmony with God above all else. If a person lives in harmony with God and has God’s favor, then He is living the Good Life regardless of circumstances-including poor health, lack of wealth, or poor reputation in the eyes of other people.

This focus on humanity’s design to live in perfect fellowship with God was Jesus’s point in the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11). It was His perspective on the cross (Hebrews 2:9-10, 12:2). And it is the perspective that Jesus taught His disciples (Luke 9:23-24, 12:4-5). Paul rhetorically asked, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31b). In saying this, Paul asserts that God fully desires our best interest and wants us to succeed. Therefore, all He tells us is the path by which we can gain the Good Life, or in biblical terms, the experience of Eternal Life.

Associating God’s favor with the Good Life would resonate with the Greeks, even if it may not have been the first thing most Greeks thought of when imagining the Good Life. But from a Biblical perspective, it is from the fact that Jesus kept increasing in favor with God, more than any of the other four areas of development, that indicates that Jesus lived the Good Life.

4.  In Favor with Men

Jesus kept increasing in favor with men.

The increase in favor with men refers to Jesus’s social development within His community.

Favor with men means being respected, admired, or well-regarded by others because of one’s character, conduct, and social skills. Jesus gained the trust and goodwill of people through consistent kindness, integrity, and wisdom.

As Jesus matured from childhood into adulthood, He would have interacted more widely with neighbors, extended family, local leaders, and fellow worshipers at the synagogue. His honesty, humility, kindness, and wisdom likely caused others to take notice. We know from John 1:14 that Jesus came to earth full of “grace and truth.”

This means His relationships were shaped by both truth and love, reflecting the character of God in every interaction. But He never acted based on the “fear of man”-meaning having a primary motivation to please people. Rather, operating in the fear of the Lord gave Jesus authenticity and compassion. This naturally drew the respect and admiration of those around Him.

This growth in favor also prepared Jesus for His future ministry.

Before He taught multitudes or called disciples, Jesus learned how to relate to people in everyday life-with sincerity, gentleness, and authority. Gaining favor with others does not require popularity in a worldly sense, but it does show that Jesus lived with such goodness and consistency that others were drawn to Him. His social development, like His physical and spiritual growth, was an important aspect of His preparation to be both the perfect Teacher and Savior. Jesus became someone who could connect with all kinds of people and ultimately give His life for them.

As a first century Jew, favor with men likely described how people respected Jesus’s genuine righteousness before the Law.

As a neighbor, favor with men likely described how the people of Nazareth respected His sense of responsibility in the face of tragedy. Apparently, Jesus took responsibility for His mother’s care after her husband and his adoptive father died, as indicated by Jesus turning her care over to John (John 19:26-27).

If Joseph died when Jesus was younger, people may have pitied Him and admired Him for the way He helped provide for Mary and lead His younger siblings. He might have apprenticed for a time under Joseph, and then became the family’s primary breadwinner.

As a man, favor with men may have described how people appreciated Jesus’s work. Jesus was a “tek-ton” (in Greek) a word that means “craftsman” and is often translated as “carpenter.” Because of what is now known about Nazareth in the first century, it is more likely He was a stonemason. We can be sure He was a builder or construction worker.

His work was likely marked by exceptional craftsmanship. Those who hired Him or worked alongside Him probably came to respect His careful attention to detail, His honest labor, and the humble excellence that marked everything He built.

Luke’s Greek audience also would have understood favor with men to be another important component to their notion of the Good Life.

The Greeks, for all their individualism, understood that “man is by nature a political animal” (Aristotle. Politics 1.2. 1253a2-3). They believed that individual humans found their significance within their community or city-state. The Greek word for “community” is “polis” from which the English word “politics” is derived. Politics means that which pertains to or affects the community.

For Greeks, a person’s purpose had to be fulfilled within a political/community context. One of their worst forms of punishment was ostracism/exile-the expulsion of one of its members from their city-state. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates opted for execution over ostracism/exile when Athens let him choose between these two punishments.

Greek individuals could not fulfill their purpose or become heroes in isolation. Their purpose had to be fulfilled in the context of community. For Greeks, it would be tragic and absurd if someone fulfilled their purpose outside of community, for then no one would be able to understand, recognize, or appreciate the benefit of it. Therefore, there would be no glory, as glory (“doxa” in Greek) is someone’s essence being observed.

This is why Socrates came to be viewed a tragic martyr for Athens. And after his pupil Plato demonstrated the great benefit Socrates was to Athens through his many dialogues, Athens repented of its verdict to condemn the great philosopher.

Jesus also would tragically not be understood or recognized for the great benefit He brought to Israel:

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”
(John 1:11)

Jesus lamented Jerusalem’s blindness and the tragic consequences its rejection of Him would soon bring upon its inhabitants (Luke 19:41-44).

The Messiah’s rejection by His own people was prophesied. And God used Israel’s rejection of the Messiah to bring about Israel’s salvation (Isaiah 53:11-12) and the salvation of the entire world (Isaiah 49:6, Romans 11:11).

But for this season of His life, Jesus kept increasing His favor with man.