Word for the Day April 27
By: Evang. Cascille Hammack
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has
a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." Heb. 3:12
Apostasy (Greek-apostasia) appears twice in the new testament as a noun in Acts 21:21 and 2 Thes. 2:3. In Heb. 3:12
as a verb (Greek- aphisitemi which means "turn away"). The Greek in Hebrews 3:12 is abandonment, defection
and falling away from what one has formerly turned to. This is an urgent warning about apostasy to alert the deadly
danger of abandoning our union and commitment to serve Christ.
Apostasy begins when a believer fails
to take warnings and teachings with grave seriousness. Heb. 3:13 says, "But encourage one another daily, as long
as it is called Today, so that none of you will be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Eph. 5:5 proclaims, "For
of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person- such a man is an idolater- has any inheritance in the
kingdom of Christ and of God." Eph. 5:6,7 warns, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of
such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them."
Those with unbelieving hearts who turn away from God (Heb. 3:12) may think they are Christians, but their indifference to
the demands of Christ and the Holy Spirit and their indifference to the warnings of Scripture reveal the truth. Because
of this possibility of self-deceptions, Paul warns in 2 Cor. 13:5, to "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the
faith; test yourselves." John says to not be deceived about the nature of salvation in 1 John 3:7-10 "Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son
of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed
remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God
are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone
who does not love his brother."
