Backsliding is not Falling Back into Sin

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3: 15, 16)

We know about Uzziah. Yet many who think they know about him only know about what happened when he died.

Yet how many know that for the most part he was a godly king?

What then happened?

We are told that he became proud. And that was his downfall because due to it he thought as the sovereign he could as well do some priestly duties.

He did not fall into immorality or other vile vices as we think of backsliding.

What am I saying?

The reality of backsliding is the cooling down of one’s passion for Christ. It is a relaxing of a believer from the rigours of his past soldenness to the causes he held very dear. It is a lethargy towards disciplines he pursued relentlessly in the past. It is a logical explanation for one’s lack of fire for the things of God. It is a looking down of people pursuing God with your past passion.

I can be doing everything right. My spiritual CV might be overflowing with all the right qualifications for ministry. My ministry output might be recognised the world over for its impact.

But my heart may have cooled off from my love for Christ and what He stands for.

I might easily explain it as maturity but the reality is that I have lost my passion for the things of God.

I am simply using the momentum I created when my heart was afire. But I have no new energy to propel me higher.

David didn’t backslide when he slept with Bathsheba.

That sin was the fruit of his backsliding.

The clearest indicator of his backsliding was staying home in the season kings went out to war. And I believe even that was a symptom as the backsliding must have started much earlier.

Yet I think Hezekiah gives us the clearest of this

Remember he was a very good and godly king.

Then he was told that the time of his death had come.

That is when we see his backslidden state, not his backsliding.

I deserve better, is what he was telling God

He was propelling his life using his past godliness and using it to bargain with God.

Grace has slipped away.

It is no wonder that we see pride consuming him once his bargain bears fruit.

Yet the clearest evidence of his backsliding can be seen in the fruit of his backslidden state.

He raised Manasseh in that state.

No where in the Bible do we see Hezekiah falling into sin.

His life went on as it had been before. Only his heart had thawed against God.

And that is what Manasseh caught since our children will catch our spirit instead of our actions and words.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4)

You read that context of this verse and will not fail to see the ‘accolades’ Jesus heaped on the church in Ephesus.

They were doing everything right. They were defending the doctrine very nicely. Their outward was perfect.

But their heart had lost its fire.

And that to God was falling.

We love saying God sees the heart. Only that we do not really behave or run with that confession.

Why do I say that?

There are things we do in secret that we will be ashamed of if people knew that we do them. There are sites we visit on the net that we would be ashamed of if everybody knew we visit them. There are thoughts and attitudes we maintain and we know they are not right because nobody can access our thoughts or hearts.

Doing ministry because we must do it is an indicator of a backslidden state. Serving God because my support comes from that is also an indicator.

In short, doing all the right things is not any indicator that God is pleased with what I am doing because He sees the heart, the source and motivation of everything I do or think.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I had to fix those verses somewhere.

And it is because they clearly exemplify what I have been saying.

One thing I love with Paul was his motivation

For the love of Christ constraineth us; (2Corinthians 5:14a)

His passion for Christ was unfazed by nothing until he was martyred.

How backslidden are you?