‘Which is come to you even as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and increasing, as it does in you also since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.'
This word of truth has borne fruit among them and resulted in their growth as Christians and the drawing of many to Christ, and indeed has done so since they first heard it. And it has not just been effective in them, but also in ‘all the world'. And what is this word? It is the true knowledge of the grace of God, of the unmerited active favour of God acting on their behalf, revealed in Christ. There may be here a reflection of the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). The sowing of the word produces growth and abundant harvest.
‘In all the world.' That is in all the world with which he was familiar, and even beyond. He knew that the preaching of the Gospel was spreading out wider and wider.