FALLING AWAY

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In Christ, Mark

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

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

2 Peter 2:20-22

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

Ever since the advent of Christianity, there have been countless believers who chose to believe in Jesus, gaining the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the assurance of salvation, only to revert back to their past self, the past self that was in love with the world and its sinful, wicked ways.

I can say that this has happened since the Christian religion was established because we see Peter addressing the matter of a believer falling away in the closing verses of the second chapter of his second letter. Here’s what we find in verses 20 through 22:

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wrote this about what is supposed to happen when someone comes to Christ:

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 5:17

Did you catch that first part, the part about the old being gone?

This is what fails to happen anytime someone decides to revert back to the person they were before coming to Christ. Rather disgustingly, they willingly choose to return to be “entangled” and enslaved by the “corruption of the world” they had once “escaped”, a behavior that Peter likens to a proverb found in the Old Testament collection of them which simply states that “a dog returns to its vomit” (Proverbs 26:1).

What’s the end result of what is often commonly called backsliding?

The believer who has fallen away becomes “worse off at the end than they were at the beginning”. Worse yet, the Word of God here makes it clear that the backslider “would have been better” off having not “known the way of righteousness” at all rather than knowing it and then turning their backs on it.

Does this describe you today or maybe someone you know?

If so, Satan has done a good job of hooking someone he had formally lost and then reeling them back into the transgressive life he prescribes, the life of transgression that defines anyone who is living in accordance with his desires and we know that life approves of anything and everything. Nothing is impermissible because all that matters is satisfying one’s personal desires and longings, the ways of God be damned.

Now, this would be a harrowing and depressing message is it wasn’t for this good news:

Our Lord is forgiving, merciful, and full of grace.

If you read this today and get a wake-up call, realizing that you have turned your back on becoming a new creation to revisit the life of iniquity you lived before Christ, you are one sincere prayer of repentance away from restoring your relationship with your God and Savior who will expect you to come back onto the narrow way He has set forth for you, the narrow way that leads to life by following His Son who is the Way and the Life (John 14:6). Know and trust that He is always waiting and ready to receive anyone who has fallen away and welcome them home (Luke 15:11-32).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.