GUARD YOUR LOVE FOR JESUS
I Corinthians 10:12,13 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
This is a serious warning and as Christians we need to take it to heart. What Paul is telling us is that the consequences can lead to the loss of our salvation. I know many pastors say that once a person becomes a Christian there is no way they will not go to heaven, but as we read in the Bible there are many verses regarding salvation that contain the qualifier of if. Hebrews 3:14 is an example by saying, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” Other verses are: Ezek 18:24 - I Cor 15:2 - II Pet 3:17 - II Pet 2:21 - II Jn 1:8 - Rev 3:11 - Matt 10:22 - Lk 21:19 - Rom 2:7 - Gal 5:4 - I Thes 3:5 - I Tim 1:19 - I Tim 4:1 - Jn 15:5,6 - Rom 11:21,22 - Matt 5:13 - I Tim 5:13.
As we see in Romans 8:37-39, nothing can take away our salvation. But as we see in the preceding verses, we can give it up. Paul points out in I Cor 10 that Christians are not any better than the Jews. He points out that the Hebrews that came out of Egypt were all under the same cloud and passed through the same water as Moses. They all ate the same manna and drank from the rock, but God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered over the desert.
Even though God had called them to represent him to the world just as he has Christians, Many of them turned from God to indulge in pagan revelry being sexualy immoral and it says that 23,000 were killed by God. They tested the Lord’s patience with their complaining to Moses and the Lord about the food and water that the Lord had given them. Because of this the Lord sent a destroying angel and many were killed by snakes for the same reason. The Hebrews had lost their fear and appreciation for the Lord.
As Christians we can’t expect God to look the other way when we deliberately sin by going against his will. This is different than the sin caused by our humanity. God understands that while in the flesh we will sin even after we give our heart and life to Jesus. We sin by not doing what God has said to do and we sin by doing what he said not to do. The greatest commandment is to Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The very best of Christians fall terribly short in this every day. It is not that we don’t want to, but our humanity pulls at us and our weakness causes us to fall short of the very commandment that we want to fulfill the most! This is where the wonderful grace of God abounds more than what we can sin. So the sin that Paul is warning us about is not of our weakness in our flesh as much as the intent of our heart.
We are all tempted. Even Jesus had great temptation when he walked on the earth. Because he didn’t have the carnal nature, and his passion to glorify his Heavenly Father, he was able to live the sinless life that God intended for all of us to live. The difference is when we realize we are being tempted and see God providing a way for us to escape, but we deliberately sin any way. Once again it is a matter of the heart! Christians can come to the point that they no longer fear, appreciation, honor and worse of all their love for the Lord. They can trample the blood of Jesus underfoot as it talks about in Hebrews 10:26-31 where it says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Once again I need to stress that the sin that causes a Christian to fall is not one of the weakness of our humanity, but rather the hardness of our heart towards God. You never have to worry about Jesus turning his back on you! What we need to worry about is turning our back on Jesus. This is why it says in Philippians 2:12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is not works righteousness in that we do things to earn God’s favor and his forgiveness, but that our fear of turning from Jesus only increases our passion to bless and love him more. Our greatest blessing shouldn’t be walking on streets of gold or elaborate crowns. It should be to be with Jesus for all eternity as his beautiful loving bride! The assurance of our standing with Jesus is seen in our love for him!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for saving us from hell and for you in heaven. Please help us to never take your great sacrifice for us lightly. Please keep us from temptation and evil. Please keep us from sinning and having regrets. Please keep us close to your heart. We love you Jesus, and ask this in your holy name.
