BACKSLIDING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Galatians 4:8-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever found yourself reverting back to old sinful habits after you became a Christian?

I think we have all been guilty of something referred to as “backsliding”.

By definition, backsliding is “to go back to doing something bad when you have been doing something good”.

Need an example in the Bible?

Look pretty much at the entire Old Testament and the history of the Israelite’s relationship with God after He delivered them from their captivity in Egypt.

You’ll remember the covenant God made with His people. He would be their God and would be faithful to them. All the Israelites had to do was remain as faithful to Him, a responsibility they regularly messed up.

Why?

Because despite God commanding they live in a certain way, a way grounded in compliance to His commandments, the people of Israel chose over and over and over again to do what they wanted to do, chasing after their desires instead of the desires God had for them. It’s something I have always referred to as the Old Testament cycle. It goes like this:

1. The Israelites would sin against God.

2. God would send a warning, usually through a prophet, promising dire consequences if the Israelites didn’t repent and turn back to Him.

3. The Israelites would ignore God’s warning and continue in their sin. God would then impose His judgment on them.

4. The Israelites would repent in the midst of God’s punishment and God would restore them.

Then, the Israelites would backslide and the cycle would start all over again.

Maybe this hits a little too close to home for many of us because how many times have we decided to live in ways contrary to what the Lord commands in our own lives?

One would be too many but I think we’ve all been guilty of multiple offenses. Perhaps we wouldn’t want to know the count if God decided to bring it up.

I think it’s obvious that God dislikes backsliding by His followers. This is why Paul chooses to bring it up as he writes to the Galatian Christians. He wanted them to see the wrongs of their ways and commit to getting right with God again.

How were the believers in Galatia erring?

They were reverting back to their ways before following Jesus and, as Gentiles, that meant they went back to worshiping false gods with the emphasis on gods (plural). This was a time when they didn’t know God and were therefore “slaves to those who by nature are not gods”. The Galatian believers had turned “back to those weak and miserable forces” and regressed into once again trying to impress God through “observing special days and months and seasons and years”. Specifically, this was getting back to the issues Paul covers at length in chapter 3 of this letter. The group of false teachers within the Galatian church was adversely influencing the believers there to conform to the Law as a means of gaining salvation. This was a clear perversion of the Gospel, one that Paul was not going to stand by and watch without a firm rebuke. Based on what he knew about the backsliding sin of the Christians in Galatia, Paul was having feelings that he may have wasted his time trying to bring the genuine Gospel to them.

The Galatian believers were guilty of backsliding and Paul dedicated himself to, first, call out the inappropriate behavior, and second, bring the Galatian church back to a focus on salvation through Christ and Christ alone.

We need to follow this same playbook as we do an unbiased evaluation of our Christian lives. If upon examination, we identify any return to past sinfulness we once checked at the door to follow Jesus, we need to repent and get back on track by returning to living as Jesus did. After all, the main root of the word “Christian” is “Christ” and every day we are to strive to be more and more like Him in the way we live.

For when we are moving forward in modeling our Savior, we are protected from moving backwards into prior sin.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

 

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