Falling Away From God

(Hebrews 3:12-14 – Falling Away from God)

The worst thing that can happen to any Christian is to fall away. Falling away from God basically spells the death of the Christian as they reject all they may have learned and returned to the ways of the world.

To do such a thing is a terrible shame. Rejecting religion and falling away from God means going back to the life from which a person was trying to escape. The evil in this world offers nothing but loss, pain, suffering, fear, and death.

So, when it comes to falling away from God, the things we must understand is why it happens, and how to prevent and overcome it through Jesus. This scripture today proves some good insights.

Why are people falling away from God?

There can be many reasons why people are falling away from God. The verses I am looking at today give some good examples.

12 Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end, (Hebrews 3:12-14)

The writer of Hebrews shows the key reason for people falling away from God in the opening verse.

If a person develops an evil, unbelieving heart, they will likely fall away from God. The issue in this case is a lack of faith. Where there is no faith, people turn away.

So, if we are to prevent this happening, it is important to learn how to overcome crises of faith. We should also learn to understand how to increase our faith.

Both of these will be covered shortly, but first we ought to examine things that lead to a weakening of faith.

Parable of the Sower

One of the classic teachings about falling away from God is given in this parable. In it, Jesus describes how different people react to the word of God and what happens as they begin walking with Christ.

3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9)

When Jesus gave this parable, He was explaining how people react on hearing the word of God. And in it we see there are four types of reaction, three of which describe people falling away from God.

One more thing to note about this particular parable is that Jesus also explained what it meant. He describes the imagery of His words to His disciples so that they could understand what He was talking about.

This is His explanation of the parable, and it shows that three of the four groups of people are those falling away from God.

18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (Matthew 13:18-23)

Understanding the Parable of the Sower

The scripture in Hebrews 3:12-14 speaks about ensuring we do not have an evil, unbelieving heart, which will lead to falling away from God. Here, in the parable of the Sower, we see examples of evil and unbelieving hearts.

The first group had no faith. The devil took away the word from them as soon as they heard it and they did not allow any faith to germinate in their lives, let alone grow. These people had evil in their hearts as they utterly rejected the word of God.

The second group, where the seed fell on rocky ground, had very little faith. When persecutions arose on account of the word, they fell away. They had unbelieving hearts that lacked the faith to stand in the face of evil opposition.

The third group, where the seed fell among weeds, also had unbelieving hearts that ultimately led to evil desires. The truth of the gospel took root, but their priorities were for the things of this world. They did not make the Lord their number one priority, and so everything else overwhelmed their lives and their faith was strangled out of them.

These three groups were all falling away from God because of their lack of faith. They had evil and unbelieving hearts that chose the world over God. This world offers only death, pain, suffering and anguish. But following Christ offers life without evil or suffering.

Yes, there will be pain and persecutions now, bu the promise of life eternal far outweighs these small sacrifices.

How to prevent falling away from God

It is possible for anyone to fall away from God if they allow it to happen.

God has promised that He will never fail nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). So, when people are falling away from God, it is not God at fault. The blame lays with the people who turn away from God, either through the things mentioned in the parable of the sower, or through having an evil, unbelieving heart.

I should also add that the devil has a BIG role to play in this as well. His desire is destruction of all people, and especially the people of God. He will use whatever he can to turn people away from God through fear, lies, condemnation and so on.

So, to prevent falling away from God we must tackle the problem on two fronts. We need to ensure we do not build an evil unbelieving heart, and we need to understand how to wage war in the Spirit.

The writer of Hebrews gives us a great piece of advice with respect to prevent an evil unbelieving heart to emerge. It will also help with two of the issues in the parable of the sower.

He wrote that to prevent falling away from God we should:

• Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” and
• hold our first confidence firm to the end

In essence, to prevent falling away from God we must make following God our first priority. He talks about “today” and I take that to mean that we need to spend time with God, praying and studying His word every day. If we neglect to do these things, then there is the opportunity for other things to strangle our faith, like those in th weeds in the parable of the sower. Also, if we don’t continue in prayer and study, our faith may be weak causing us to walk away when persecution arises, like those where the seed fell on the rocks.

Doing these things will help prevent us falling away from God, and will help hold our first confidence firm to the end. As we grow closer to the Lord we will begin to put His words and His ways first. We will consider everything we do in the light of the knowledge of God. Doing so will go a long way towards preventing us from falling away from God.

Spiritual warfare to prevent falling away from God

I mentioned that the devil plays a big part in leading people away from God. His desire is destruction. He is the destroyer and the one who condemns the people of God. If we want to prevent falling away from God then we need to know how to fight and wage war in the spirit.

Spiritual warfare is a big topic, and rather than go into it here, I have prepared a comprehensive, free of charge, training program that looks at spiritual warfare. I would recommend you to do that training to understand the depth of what is needed to adequately fight and win the war against the devil, through the power of Jesus Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit. This is the link to the Spiritual Warfare Training Program.

The Lord has provided everything we need to find and enter His kingdom, including how to prevent ourselves from falling away from God. When we follow the teachings of Jesus we will learn how to stand in Christ and grow to receive the promises of the Lord for salvation.

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