Drifting Away

Drifting Away

“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

This scripture reminds us of a boat on the ocean without land in sight, exposed to winds and diverse currents. If you are not alert, you will go off course. Then you can start drifting without any idea of what you might encounter.

What we have heard is the salvation with which Jesus came as High Priest of a new covenant. In the first covenant they had animal sacrifices that could not take away sins. Ch. 10:1-4. However, through Jesus a better hope was brought in, by which we can draw near to God. He offered Himself in the power of the eternal Spirit; it is His blood which cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Ch. 9:13-14. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Ch. 7:18-25.

Jesus took away the first (the animal sacrifices), and established the second (doing God’s will with one’s body). Ch. 10:5-10. He did this by giving His body as a sacrifice. Therefore He did not sin, and death could not hold Him. Ch. 13:20-21.

Jesus led the way as a Shepherd, and the sheep follow Him. The course that Jesus always kept in the days of His flesh in order to attain to the resurrection from the dead was the course of a servant who humbled Himself. Phil. 2:5-9. By humbling Himself He never came out of love. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16. We must keep precisely the same course.

He who abides in love is in the light. But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:10-11. Because unrighteousness is increasing, the love of many will grow cold. Then they have gone off course, and they don’t know what they are running into. Consequently, they can easily suffer shipwreck before they can find their way back to the right course.

When a person does not want to humble himself, he drifts away from abiding in love. Therefore we have this exhortation: Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Rom. 12:1-2. Then we can also prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are kept in love if we humble ourselves; then we are in God, and God is in us. “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” 1 Pet. 4:19. We are kept in love by doing the good. We have to commit everything to God who judges righteously—everything that we have to suffer, all unrighteousness, and everything that others feel free to do.

We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away from them, but instead obtain the victory crown from above: meeting Jesus in the clouds.