Increase in Scripture is the fruit of God's blessing and the evidence of faithful stewardship. The first divine command to humanity was to "be fruitful and multiply" — to increase and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). God's blessing consistently produces increase: of offspring, livestock, harvest, wisdom, and spiritual fruit. But the NT reframes increase away from self-promotion toward Christ-exaltation: John the Baptist's declaration "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30) sets the paradigm. The church grows as God gives increase (1 Cor. 3:6–7); spiritual maturity is described as the body growing up into Christ (Eph. 4:15–16). True increase is never self-generated — it is always a gift from the God who causes growth.
INCRE'ASE, v.i. [L. incresco; in and cresco, to grow.] 1. To become greater in bulk, quantity, number, or amount; to augment; to grow. 2. To become more in number. 3. To advance in any quality good or evil. 4. To be more fruitful. n. 1. Augmentation; a growing larger or more. 2. Produce; product of labor; fruit of the earth. 3. Progeny; issue; offspring.
The prosperity gospel has hijacked "increase" as a transactional promise — give to God and receive material multiplication in return. This reduces the covenant God of Scripture to a cosmic vending machine and distorts the nature of spiritual growth. Conversely, secular culture defines increase entirely in quantitative terms: more followers, more income, more influence, more power. The idol of "more" drives the restless striving of modern life. Biblical increase is qualitative before it is quantitative: increase in wisdom, in love, in conformity to Christ. A church of 50 that is maturing in faith and bearing fruit is experiencing true increase even while declining in attendance.
• John 3:30 — "He must increase, but I must decrease."
• 1 Corinthians 3:6–7 — "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
• Colossians 2:19 — "…from which all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God."
• Genesis 1:28 — "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…'"
G837 — auxanō — to grow, increase; used for the growth of the word of God (Acts 6:7), of the church, and of the believer's faith; growth attributed to God alone
H7235 — rābāh — to multiply, increase, become great; the verb of blessing in Genesis 1:28; used for both physical multiplication and covenantal abundance
G4121 — pleonazō — to abound, increase, overflow; used in Romans 5:20 ("where sin increased, grace abounded all the more") — divine increase always outpaces human failure
• "The greatest increase a minister can experience is not a growing congregation but a diminishing self — 'He must increase, but I must decrease.'"
• "God alone gives the increase; the believer's role is to plant and water faithfully, trusting that the harvest belongs to God and will come in His time."
• "Spiritual maturity is not measured by increased activity but by increased Christlikeness — more patience, more love, more surrender to God's will."