By Rev Daniel Yaw

"Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity."  (verse 1)
Having served the Lord for so many years, it is so easy to relax and pat our hands on our shoulders and say, “Not bad after all these years.” Is that quite enough?  I fell with the apostle Paul who said, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I should be disqualified.” 
We live each day by the grace of God.  The greatest assurance we have is the presence of God that is promised to His beloved.  However, lest we take for granted his grace and become presumptuous, there is a warning of the possibility of falling away.

Falling Away

There is much debate over Calvin's doctrine of salvation.  As I looked at the verse above, it is not a cause for argument really but a sober awakening.  While the words are serious and heavy, "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God... and then have fallen away, to restore them to repentance".
This is indeed something sobering in that even the apostle Paul speaks about being careful lest after all his preaching, he should be disqualified.  It is a call not to take the grace of God for granted.  
It is a reminder of the "great salvation" we have in Christ and we should not be throwing it away and falling away.
As I penned these words, it is not to frighten us but only to sober us.  We must observe how we walk.  One of those sobering thoughts is that we must guard from falling away – either deliberately or even drifting away.

Faithfully Advancing

The flip side is really about being faithful to God.  The writer tells us to "leave the elementary and go on to maturity".  It means we continue faithfully in our walk.  A faithful walk is always a progressive and advancing walk toward maturity.  God plans that we will all become like him from glory to glory.  Therefore, we must be faithful in our call, in our walk, and in our service.  While it sounded like a warning, this verse is an assurance that as long as we are faithful, we have nothing to fear about losing our salvation.
The message by the writer is that we must remain faithful and not idle our lives away.  No matter how old we are, how long we have served, or how big an achievement we have obtained, we must always be found faithful in our walk and our service.

Conclusion

How are you and I faring today?  We are not talking about yesterday but today.  As I thought of this, I thought of our camp once again – the theme being, “Living a life worthy of God.”, I pray that we will indeed be found faithful to walk a life worthy of the calling by which we have been called.

May I offer this prayer and make this prayer yours today?

Lord Jesus, thank you for the reminder of such great and gracious salvation that I have that I am now a child of God.  May my desire is always to be thankful and a determination to be faithful to you.  Enable me by your Holy Spirit to stick faithfully to you.  In Jesus' name, Amen.