THE CONSEQUENCES OF SPIRITUAL NEGLECT

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In Christ, Mark

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

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

2 Peter 1:9

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

Over the past six days, we have looked at the rewards of being obedient to God’s call for growth through the power of spiritual addition. You’ll remember that this call involved a striving for moral excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, mutual/brotherly affection, and love. Those who adopted these Christian character qualities in increasing measure would assure they would be productive and effective in showing they know Jesus. They would also let others know that they are indeed called by God and selected to carry out His will and way.

This is what believers are supposed to do but what about those who choose to ignore this direction. We look at this in today’s message from the ninth verse of 2 Peter, chapter 1. Let’s look again at that Word here:

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Here we find out what happens when a Christian fails to exercise the power of spiritual addition. Essentially, they are no different than a non-believer.

You see, to be Christian is to be Christ-like and if we go back in this chapter to verse 8, we learn that anyone who fails to grow and mature spiritually as prescribed will be ineffective and unproductive in regard to their knowledge of Jesus. And since they are unproductive in their knowledge of Jesus, then they will lose their bearings on the deep sacrifice He made for them. They will forget how He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to cleanse them from their past sins.

The Word of God likens this forgetting to one who has lost their sight, whether through blindness or choosing to shut their eyes to see what they should see (another translating of the word used for nearsightedness is that one has shut their eyes). The believer removes their eyes from the cross and in doing so, the essence of their redemption and salvation.

Ultimately, this unplugged Christian does nothing short of disrespecting the very One who hung and died to purchase his or her pardon, and perhaps this is the most egregious of all the consequences of spiritual neglect, to intentionally turn away from the Savior of the world, the very Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

If you’re reading this today and you fit who the scriptures are talking about, the good news is that you can be forgiven in a moment. All you need to do right now is repent of your sin, showing remorse for turning your eyes away from Jesus and forgetting all He has done to save you. Know and trust that He will grant you His grace, and be overjoyed that you are returning to where He wants you to be, alongside Him every step of the way through life.

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.