In the world of Christendom, it is common for people to come to church, confess Christ, and in time fall away from Christ. We say they are a back slider and they may very well be. However, there is the possibility they have departed from the faith they once had. It is also possible they never truly surrendered and repented of their sins, but only had an emotional experience. Each of these scenarios leaves them in grave danger of an eternity in hell. For this reason, we need to pay attention to our growth as a follower of Jesus Christ and to those who are babies in Him. By continuing to grow in Him, we must ensure that we will not depart from our life with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
In I Timothy 4:1 Paul talks about those who will depart from the faith in later times. Anything later than Paul’s time can be classified as latter times. We definitely fit in that category. Paul reminds them to live their lives in a way that pleases the Lord. When he had been with them in the beginning, he taught them what they should do to please the Lord. He taught them to walk in the Spirit of truth. They were to study, pray, and seek to please God. They were to help one another to challenge each other in the scriptures.
He knew that there were false teachers who would seek to influence them, and he warned them to not listen. He mentions “seducing spirits and “doctrines of devils.” These were false teachers who were charismatic in their preaching. They were convincing while speaking lies. They were hypocritical or rather great pretenders of the faith. Paul says they have had their conscience seared with a hot iron. This term refers to the branding with an iron such as they use to brand cattle. When an area of the skin is branded after healing it has no feeling. This is what happens when we are not diligently seeking Jesus. The Bible is written to us and for us and when someone preaches or teaches go to the word to see if they are right. Do not fall for those who pull scripture out of context and make it say what they want it to say. It is our responsibility to find out the truth. If we do not we are leaving ourselves wide open to believing a lie.
I Timothy 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron”
In Jude 1:3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Accepting Jesus as our Savior starts with a single step, but we are expected to continue walking toward Him and growing in our faith. He provides everything we need to persevere in our faith. We have His word and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. There are good Bible teaching churches to help us and it is vital to our obedience and growth to get involved. If we depart from the faith it is no one’s fault but our own. In the world we live in today we must be vigilant to contend for our faith. We must not allow ourselves to be enticed by the world to do things that would keep us from studying the word, having prayer time, or attending and being involved in a local church. You may think this is legalistic or too restrictive and if that is the case you do not love Jesus as he told us to in Matthew 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
