The Peril of Falling Away

6 Therefore let us go on towards perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith towards God, ² instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. ³ And we will do this, if God permits. ⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. ⁷ Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. ⁸ But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over. ⁹ Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. ¹¹ And we want each one of you to show the same diligence, so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, ¹² so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. –HEBREWS 6:1-12 (NRSV)

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹ Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. ²⁶ For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful prospect of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ³² But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴ For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. ³⁵ Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. ³⁶ For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. ³⁷ For yet

‘in a very little while,
    the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
³⁸ but my righteous one will live by faith.
    My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’

³⁹ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved. –HEBREWS 10:19-39 (NRSV)