LEARNING DAILY

 

Hebrews 3:12, Be careful then, dear friends (brothers). Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning away from the living God.  (New Living Translation)

 

The New King James version writes Hebrews 3:12 this way, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”. I want you to read this version because of the word “departing”. The Greek word translates to “turn away” and refers to one who at one time believed and walked with Christ but has renounced or rejected Him and left the Christian faith. Sounds like those antichrists from yesterday’s page of the blog. I realize that this thought goes against many teachings; however, this tells me a person can willingly and deliberately choose to “depart” from walking with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is apostacy!

 

The Christian faith is mainly about your and my relationship to God. The Bible teaches us about God as a father and Jesus Christ’s as His Son and teaches us when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become part of His family; we are God’s children. John 15 describes this relationship as being like a vine and its branches. In that teaching Jesus is the vine and you and I (all Believers) are the branches. As long as the branches remain in union with the vine, their life is secure and fruitful. The problem occurs when the Believer allows their heart to become hardened because of continual sin and deceit from the world system (the kosmos) and chooses to break the relationship of grace with Christ. That is when the “turning away (departing) from the living God” occurs. Why? It is because the heart becomes “evil and unbelieving”.

 

You and I must look at this as a warning – an urgent warning – in this “last hour” about being deceived and turning away from walking on the narrow way. Remember Jesus told us the narrow way was full of difficulties. This is a warning for each of us to not allow our hearts to be weakened by those who view apostacy cannot happen. We are to hold on to God’s Word with all diligence in order to guard our heart. To save time, let me give to you some references from Scripture that support this. Get your Bible out and read them.  Matthew 24: 4-5; 11-13. John 15:6; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Colossians 1:23; 1 Timothy 4:1; 16, 2 Timothy 4:2-5; Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:7-19; 4:1, 6-7; 2 Peter 1:10, 20-22. Take the time to read these references and see if they support what I am writing!

 

I am going to share some steps that lead to apostasy – falling away. They were found in the Life in the Spirit Study Bible notes. Believers must not fail to take seriously the truth, exhortations, warnings and promises of God’s Word with utmost seriousness. Be aware of taking the promise given by the world system as greater than the promises of God’s kingdom. Doing so will cause even the Believer to draw closer to the world and draw them away from God through Christ. Believers must be constantly aware of becoming tolerant of sin in their own lives. When this happens, it becomes easy to no longer love righteousness and hate wickedness. Guard your heart; the Bible tells us it can become hardened to the point that the Holy Spirit is ignored.

 

If this goes unchecked, one who was excited and walking on the narrow way may find their heart becoming hardened and willful sin becomes part of their lifestyle and one refuses to repent and walk with God. The answer to this is to repent when we sin and be diligent with our walk with the Lord. We must be careful to not harden our heart to His Word (Hebrews 3:7-8). And we must remember that God does not want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9).