Heb. 10:23a ... "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering."
It would be a most wonderful and encouraging thing if everyone who obeyed the gospel would remain true to his spiritual commitment. But it is more common for large numbers of those who profess allegiance to Christ to lose their sense of identification with Him at some point along the way, grow cold in their "first love," become inactive in works of service, and finally go on their way as they were before their conversion. This was no less a problem in the days of Jesus and His apostles than it is now, for the New Testament makes numerous references to the sad defection of some. In fact, in the Parable of the Sower, (Mat. 13:3-8, 18-23), Jesus indicated that this would be a persistent problem throughout the Christian age. In picturing four types of people who would receive His word, He showed that three of them would eventually turn away from it. In John 6, Jesus experienced the disheartening situation reported in v. 66, "Many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore."
One of the main objectives in the epistle to the Hebrews is the attempt to prevent large numbers of those addressed from deserting Christ. In 2:1 there is a solemn warning not to let ourselves "drift away." Following in v.3 is a sobering question to the drifting disciples, "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" And in the second verse following the lead text above, the inspired writer reveals that it was already the "habit of some" to be "forsaking our own assembling together." Then, in the last verse of this chapter, he declares that some of the Hebrew Christians had even then begun to "shrink back to destruction."
Why is it that so many who once submitted allegiance to Christ defect later and let themselves drift back into the pollution and rebellion of sin? A very detailed answer to this question would take into consideration the myriad situations which arise in the lives of the defectors. Jesus, however, has already summarized them in the Parable of the Sower into three basic categories:
1. The lives of many people are so shallow that the gospel never penetrates far enough into their thinking and affections to transform them fundamentally.
2. It is the experience of many others to expose themselves carelessly to the seduction of evil, which, through its unrelenting power, eventually reclaims their souls in its vicious grip.
3. A third and very large group are those who involve themselves in the cares and pleasures of worldly affairs which gradually paralyze their spiritul activity and then sear their conscience until they are past being sensitive to religious stimuli, (see I Tim. 4:1-2).
The remedy to spiritual defection also has many specific applications, but the main ingredient is the individual's own will to persevere in his allegiance to Christ. Jesus points our attention to this when He says, "If anyone is willing to do His will," (John 7:17). One might call it resolution, fixed purpose, firm commitment, or something similar. But the basic idea is that of an unretractable decision to follow Jesus all the way to the end of life. None of the particular measures available to negate apostasy will be effective if the subject does not have the will to maintain loyalty to Christ. A complexity of mental entities correlate to establish such a will, including knowledge, hope, faith, love, conviction, humility, appreciation, and reverence. Any approach toward dealing with the problem of religion desertion that does not address the state of the individual's will and those concomitant mental factors is largely a symptomatic operation that has a very low rate of success, and one that is short-lived in the few limited successes it might manage to achieve.
