Falling away.

I Jo 2:19: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."

Scary verse! Scary letter, to be honest. Especially when the Apostle John is dealing, not with hypotheticals, but with actual people that lived with them, did life together with them, taught Sunday school, baby sat, horse pooled and gave ample evidence of what appeared to be genuine, saving faith for a period of time. My pastor has preached through I John a number of years ago and now we are going through the book of Hebrews, which seems to be even more blunt when it questions the genuineness of our faith. It is frightening to me that as we read the warnings in the pages of our Sacred literature, we see it happening in real life all around us. People that, once we had strong confidence about the estate of their souls, now live openly as unbelievers. My theology assumes wheat and tears growing together, but that makes it no less disheartening. Just this past weekend, Ray Boltz, acclaimed worship singer, went public about his homosexuality and said he plans to embrace that lifestyle. I have a dear friend, who at least wanted to be a Christian in years past, now openly rejecting the Bible and the Trinity, and the resurrection and the pursuit of holiness altogether. Another one, raised in church, good testimony for many years, now dangerously flirting with sin, cheating on Christ with somebody else.

How do we cope with this? How is a fellow Christian supposed to deal with such a crude reality? It is far too easy to play the "Holiness police" game, enumerate people's sins, point out their flaws and walk away. To go to bed at night after a whole day of pretending only others have issues, is less than fun and not a warm blanket for a cold soul. It is a clear evidence of pride when we act as if we have not fallen because we are better. Of course we, "humble" evangelicals, would never say "we are better", but that is precisely what we communicate when we are quick to talk about people's junk but slow to acknowledge that the reason we don't become Hitler is not our innate morality and goodness but the grace of Christ. If he were to remove His grace from us, we all would be gone. The beautiful thing in experiencing, realizing and cherishing Grace is that, ultimately, there is no pressure to perform, but a deep longing for this God who has redeemed, not a future, improved version of us, but who we are now, helpless sinners, and sanctifies us by His Spirit through His word daily.
To Him be all the glory and all the praise forever.
Amen.