1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
Don’t ever be shocked when people who claim to be believers abandon the faith that they profess. Remember, as Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “…Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Just because someone claims to be a believer does not necessarily mean that they have been “…justified by faith.” (Romans 5:1)
When people “depart from the faith”, they are not really leaving the faith, but they are simply showing that they never embraced the faith in the first place. Paul is not saying that some people become Christians, are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, are united to the Lord Jesus Christ, are truly relying and trusting in Christ alone for salvation, and then they lose their salvation. That is not at all what he is saying. Paul is talking about people who have made some sort of a profession of faith and then renounced the faith by abandoning the truth later on. Their apparent apostasy is not a sign that they have lost their faith, but rather that they never really experienced grace in the first place.
Remember, as Paul said in Romans 8:38, “…I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate God’s children from His saving arms!
True believers persevere! Believers persevere, not because they are better or more committed, but because God has promised to finish what He has started in them. God is always at work in the hearts and lives of His children, “…willing and working for His good pleasure in their lives.” (Philippians 2:13)
Thank God that the security of your salvation does not rest on your faithfulness, or your ability to hang in, but it rests upon the faithfulness of God.
