Introduction
The passage is more like a warning about returning the old life. I know some of us are feeling spiritually weak from time to time. Some even fell of going back to the sinful nature because they cannot see themselves working something for the Lord. The worst thing is, some of them cannot give up what the Lord is asking them to give up. For some it was pride, for others its their wealth, while to others their family. But today we will be learning something from the Bible that teaches us not to give up.
Why Backsliding Is Not A Good Idea?
It is a sign of immaturity (v.1).
Remaining in elementary teachings signifies immaturity. We all know that elementary teachings are for kids. They are the basics of learning. As our eductational grade school goes up, the more difficult our lessons will be.
Our spiritual life is similar to our student life. As time goes by, as we continue going to school, we are learning more things, more complicated and difficult lessons. And this means that we need more perseverance, need more patience and work harder.
Remaining infant is not an option. We have to overcome immaturity as we have overcome our own emotional lives, we also have to overcome our spiritual lives, its challenges and changes.
It is a sign of not receiving the grace of God (v.4-6).
It says there it is “impossible” to for a man who have tasted all the goodness of God to renew them again to fall into repentance. This passage is a little hard to understand, but what it says is that those people are like those who are apostate. People who denied Christ despite of their full conciousness of His power and of His being, cannot expect forgiveness. As what the passage tells us, it is like crucifying Christ again.
A man who have experienced all the goodness of Christ, His power and everything in Him will not turn His back from Him. But if there is someone who will, the Bible says it is like crucifying Christ one more time, putting Him to an open shame.
It is sometimes hard to believe things about cursing, or what we call “karma / gaba”, but it is true especially when the name of the Lord is at stake. The Old Testament explicitly commanded, “Do not use the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Thus, it is understandable that God have taught the Israelites to respect even the name of the Lord, and how much more His overwhelming integrity?
It is a sign of upcoming judgement (v.8).
As we can see here in verse 8, it says, “...if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.” Now here we see that the previous point also applies. Being given a chance to be partakers of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God, yet in the end turned down Christ because at the first place they did not accept the grace of God, surely their end is to be burned.
The Bible is clear that there is no future in being an appostate, for those people who profess that they love God and they are of God, yet in the end turned their backs denying by actions or by works what they are before.
It is a sign of rebellionagainst God.
Some depart from what they believe because they cannot simply follow God. For them, nothing can change them, not even God. What else could be worst in a man who believes that no one can ever change them? Having doubts is actually rebelling against God.
And what can we gain in rebelling against God? Nothing but agony, because no matter how we rebell, we can never win against God. But sometimes, people are just by nature rebellious.
What Should We Do Then?
Leave the elementary teachings (v.1)
To move on to the next step. Elementary teachings are for kids, for young people. There are more things to discover, more things to work on, more things to learn. We have to accept what was designed for us to learn.
We have to take that another step. Leaving though does not mean abandoning nor forgetting what we already have learned. It is just learning more, going to advance level. This is just the first step, because in order to take the full advantage of these things, we have to apply it which brings us to the next step.
Learn and apply the advance teachings (v.1).
Not only that we have to take that step, but we have to learn it verfy carefully. To make things clearer, it's like from elementary we are now going to high school level. It doesn't mean that we have to forget what we have learned from elementary but we are now moving on to the high school level.
Now that we are in the high school level, we are suppose to be learning a whole new lessons, more advance as what we have learned in the elementary. If we have learned the basic mathematical operations, in high school level, we are suppose to have mastered it and use it in a lot more difficult lesson, algebra and trigonometry.
The thing is, even if we have taken another step, we have to learn and not become stagnant students. Because in high school, more temptations and more peer pressure comes. In fact, as we see our students now, we see lots of students who remained frist year because instead of going to class, they go to somewhere else, somewhere cool.
We have to finish our schooling until we graduate and receive diplomas.
Conclusion
Obviously, turning our backs against the Lord is not an option nor it should be. But instead, we have to move on forward to maturity.
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