The Warnings Begin

Revelation 2:2-5

I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place–unless you repent. 

Hebrews 2:1

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.

As I transition from teaching on the books of I and II Peter to teaching on the Book of Hebrews, I can’t help but have God’s warnings at the forefront on my mind. Peter’s first letter to the Church contains such encouragement to them to hold fast to their faithfulness amidst horrific persecution, keeping always in mind their inheritance which is reserved for them in heaven, reminding them that the goal of their faith – of which the testing they are going through is necessary in order to reach this goal – is the salvation of their soul, which is yet future. Peter’s first letter is replete with practical behaviors that each Christian can implement as they undergo this suffering, but Peter doesn’t hesitate to explain and warn concerning what will befall those who stumble and are disobedient.

Peter transitions to another letter, still with the inheritance and the kingdom out ahead firmly in view, only in this letter he warns about the persecution and trouble about to come on them from within themselves, meaning the false teachers arising from among them to lead them astray from the purity of the gospel they first knew. These false teachers would malign the truth, secretly introducing heresies that many would follow, ultimately condemning to destruction not only them, called “stains and blemishes,” but those who would follow them as well. Peter ends with an encouragement for the recipients of his letter to continue to conduct themselves in all holiness and godliness, knowing that God’s promise of Christ’s return – and all that accompanies it – is sure.

God warns His people, time after time after time. And He does it to protect us, because He knows that ALL OF US have in us this tendency to lose our steadfastness if we’re not diligent and watchful and careful. Note the first passage quoted here, which (along with many levels of exegesis) presents us with a look at the problems within the beginning of the Church that ultimately ends with the Church being “lukewarm,” “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked,” and they “do not know it” (Rev. 3:17). The Church has “left its first love.”

And then in Hebrews, which contains 5 specific warnings to Christians about losing their inheritance in the age to come (not for eternity, but for the Kingdom Age), we see the first warning which consists of a caution to pay much closer attention to what we’ve heard (context dictates that this is referring to the Messianic implications of the Old Testament quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, and the “world to come" seen in Hebrews 2:5) so that we do not drift away from it. To me, these two passages from Revelation and Hebrews are saying the same thing: that we Christians absolutely need to hold fast to the Word of God and our love for it (which all pertains to the imminent return of our Lord and King, Jesus) so that we don’t find ourselves lukewarm and completely apathetic to the truth of God’s Word. 

Does God’s Word still excite you? Do you long to spend time with your Lord through the study of His Word? Do you yearn for it as you yearned for it at the beginning of your walk with Him? Has the Word gotten boring? Do you realize that you are betrothed to Christ, and the wedding is coming, but He isn’t going to marry someone that He doesn’t intimately know? Do you know that there is a danger of being unprepared for that Day, and for many Christians they have no idea that they are unprepared in regard to it (naked, blind, wretched…)? Why does God need to constantly warn us about drifting away, about false teachers that WILL arise (and have already risen) within the Church, and about our own ignorance? It’s because we need to be warned! We will drift away – and there is something quite real to lose if we do – if we don’t realize that we can fall in the very same way as Israel did (1 Cor. 9:24-10:12). Israel didn’t enter into their land and receive their inheritance (save two who were faithful) because of their hard hearts and unbelief, and WE can fail to enter into our land and receive our inheritance if we allow ourselves to become hardened and unbelieving as they did (Heb. 3:7-4:10). 

And how does it start? By leaving our first love, by drifting away from what we’ve heard.  King Solomon gives us a good example of what this slow process looks like. King Solomon began his reign as one of the world’s greatest and richest and wisest of men, being showered with the blessings of wisdom, knowledge, discernment, strength, riches, fame, vision and skill from the Lord Himself. And under Solomon’s reign Israel was transformed into the greatest kingdom the world had known, with people arriving from all over the world to behold the glory of it all. However, at the end of his reign Solomon was most pitiable, for he had fallen hard and fallen far as he gave himself over to all that is in the world and of the world, and not in and of the Lord – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2;16). But it took a while for it to happen; the erosion of Solomon’s spiritual life and character was slow, but it was lethal.

What happened to Solomon?  One could say that it began with this –

Psalm 103:2

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits.

Solomon forgot the source of His blessings, and he consequently began to forget the necessity to follow His commands fully. Did Solomon ever stop believing that God existed?  Nope. Did he forget that he was eternally saved and one of God’s chosen people? Nope.  What did he forget? He forgot who God is; he forgot God’s promises; he forgot the necessity to remain intimately obedient to the Lord in heart and mind and strength.

The Book of Ecclesiastes gives us peek into the deterioration of Solomon’s glory. He began to get bored and disillusioned by the very things that he was at one time asking for and longing for (Ecc. 2). Solomon began to look elsewhere for entertainment and satisfaction; he turned to women and other nations, and ultimately to other gods. Did it happen overnight?  No. Solomon slowly drifted away from what should have been, and once was, his true love. He saw and desired the world and its enticements, and slowly integrated himself into it, forgetting the commands of the Lord concerning his expected separation from (and the subsequent dangers of) the other nations. He viewed his marriage relationship wrongly; rather than seeing the beauty and power of the husband and wife relationship, he instead saw the numerous unions with numerous women as self-serving tools of power and manipulation and pleasure. Unfortunately for Solomon, it was those very relationships which eased him along his slow transition into idolatry.  

Solomon drifted away, and at the end of his life he realized his foolishness; he realized what he had wasted; he realized what he could have been and what he could have done. 

God doesn’t want us to wait until the end of our lives to see how far we’ve fallen or how lukewarm we really are. He warns us again and again and again in order to wake us up now so that we won’t miss out on His blessings then.  How merciful is our God that He would do this?! Please pay much closer attention to what you’ve heard, and remember from where you’ve fallen. Remember your first love; take heed you who thinks he stands, lest you fall. Do not tolerate evil men; put to the test those who call themselves “apostles” (or “teachers”); endure for the Lord’s sake and do not grow weary. Repent and do the deeds you did at first. 

Find and return to your first love.