For this very reason, make every
effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to
knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they
will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and
blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a
rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I
will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are
firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh
your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I
will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I
will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able
to remember these things. (II Peter 1:5-15)
There
are some who believe that it is possible to lose one's salvation. I'm not one
of them, but I confess there are many times when I have wondered. Many times
when I've been absolutely sure that God was disappointed with me. Many times
when I've been fairly certain that my Christianity is a joke. (This is not to
say that Christianity is a joke, but that my profession thereof is sorry enough
to make someone laugh.)
This is one of the reasons we need
other Christians, people who can reassure us that we are making progress with
regard to faith, goodness....and love. It's why we need other Christians to
point out when we aren't making progress. We need other Christians to show us
what all those things look like. On our own, we tend to be nearsighted or
blind, thinking that we are doing well, or badly, when we are not.
This
is also why we need to review the basics regularly. Scripture constantly
returns to the basics. Sometimes, that seems demoralizing. We go through
something and think we have it nailed, then find ourselves back to square one.
Something that helps me with this is classic fantasy stories like The Lord of
the Rings. The character leaves home, experiences dangers, overcomes incredible
odds and returns home, only to discover that home isn't home any more, and they
aren't who they were when they were last there. It may take a long time to
notice the more subtle changes, which takes us back to the beginning of the
last paragraph and the need for other Christians to see what we can't.
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