No Room for Backsliding
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." — Philippians 2:12–13
The Excuses We Have Standardized
We are easy on ourselves, and we have developed a vocabulary for it.
"Everyone backslides occasionally." "It takes time to drop off sins." "Nobody's perfect." "I'm just in a season."
Each of these sounds like humility. Each functions as permission.
God makes no room for sin or backsliding anywhere in His word.
We cling to our pride and refuse to let Him humble us. We cherish particular sinful desires and grieve and block the Holy Spirit by holding onto them. And all the while we are lying to ourselves and to everyone around us.
Either we are serious — deadly serious — about our commitment to the Lord, or we are on our way to hell. It is that simple.
The Warning in Hebrews 6
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." (Hebrews 6:4–8)
Note the image. The same rain falls on both fields. One produces useful herbs and receives blessing. The other produces thorns and is near to cursing.
The difference is not in the rain. It is in what the ground does with it.
Named Directly
The warning is not general. Let it be specific.
Pastor — are you secretly engaged in adultery? Then you are in danger of being cursed by God.
Believer — are you refusing to put out sin the Holy Spirit has been convicting you about? Then you are in danger.
You who have come out of the occult — are you toying with the idea of just one more incantation to get yourself out of a situation where God is not answering as you would like? If you do, you have crucified Jesus afresh and put Him to open shame. You are in danger.
That last one deserves particular attention, because the temptation comes precisely when God seems slow. The old method worked. It is available. And the moment you reach for it, you have declared that the old master was more reliable than the new one.
What God Actually Offers
"Wherefore, my beloved... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12–13)
Read both halves. You work it out with fear and trembling — and God works in you, giving you both the willingness and the ability.
You are not being told to generate holiness by effort. You are being told to take it seriously and cooperate with the One who is producing it.
Point to Ponder
The same rain falls on both fields. The difference is not in the rain.
Verse to Remember
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." — Philippians 2:13
Question to Consider
What sin have I made peace with by giving it a comfortable name?
Today's Practice
List the phrases you use about your own sin. The actual sentences you say to yourself or to others.
It's just a struggle. I'm working on it. It's a season. Everyone does this. I've got it mostly under control. God understands.
Write them down.
Now, beside each, write the thing it is actually describing — plainly, in God's vocabulary rather than yours.
Then confess the excuse itself as sin, because it is the mechanism that has kept the sin alive:
"Father, I confess that I have called ______ a struggle when it is sin, and that the name I gave it has protected it for years. Forgive me for the excuse as well as the act."
Then ask for the second half of Philippians 2:13 — not just forgiveness, but the will: "Work in me both to will and to do. I do not even want to stop, and I am asking You to change what I want."
Prayer
Father, I have made peace with things You never made peace with.
I have given my sins comfortable names — struggles, weaknesses, seasons, my personality — and the names have kept them safe for years.
I confess the excuse as well as the sin. Both were mine.
And where I have been tempted, when You seemed slow, to go back to something that used to work — forgive me and guard me. I will not go back. There is nothing behind me worth having.
Work in me both to will and to do. I do not always want what You want. Change what I want, not merely what I do.
Let the rain that falls on me produce something useful. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The excuse is not a lesser sin than the act. It is the mechanism that keeps the act alive.