Scripture warns of the dangers of turning away from a life of faith and obedience to God. In Revelation 2:5, Jesus calls believers to repent and return to their first love, while 2 Peter 2:21 notes that it is better to have never known the way of righteousness than to turn back after having known it. The book of Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 10:26-29, cautions against willfully sinning after receiving knowledge of the truth, and Jesus teaches in Luke 9:62 that looking back after putting one's hand to the plow can render a person unfit for the kingdom of God. Revelation 2:4 also emphasizes the importance of maintaining a strong faith, lest one's love for God grow cold.
Relevance Score
29%
Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. 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 one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’
Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame. For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.
holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby shipwrecked their faith.