The danger of Neglect
Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Last time we saw how great the salvation that the Bible talks about is. This time we consider a warning of the danger of neglecting so great a salvation. It is not talking about active opposition like resisting it, rejecting it or violently opposing it; but merely passive neglect.
People find it hard to understand that simply doing nothing is so dangerous in the spiritual realm, but it is really only a reflection of our normal, daily experience. Relationships fall apart because we don’t work at them. A beautiful garden is destroyed by neglect; a house crumbles around you if you don’t maintain it. If you are in business you don’t need to take a machine gun to your customers to kill it, simple neglect is enough. If you are desperately ill you don’t need to commit suicide by taking poison or shooting yourself, you can often do it just as surely by ignoring early symptoms or not taking medicines. As Solomon put it:
Prov 24:33 A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; 34 So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
v1b paints a similar picture - emphasising the danger of drifting away (AV slip). How often do we hear warnings about the use of airbeds during the summer? Yet each year someone takes one into the sea, dozes off and before they realise the land is almost out of sight. That is the way with drifting. You just get carried along by the current.
In just the same way in the things of God, neglect or drifting can be as disastrous as open rebellion. We do not need to actively reject the gospel to be in danger, we have only to neglect, ignore or be careless of it. You don’t need to commit ‘great sins’ to destroy your soul. Simple neglect will do it just as efficiently. The indifferent are in as great a need of a Saviour as the drunkard, drug addict, murderer and genocidal tyrant.
For every one who actually decides to turn his back on Christ, there are hundreds who drift through life without Him… Life’s ocean is full of currents, any one of which will sweep us past the harbour-mouth even when we seem nearest to it, and carry us far out to sea. It is the drift that ruins men. The drift of the religious world. The drift of old habits and associations; which, in the case of these Hebrew Christians, was setting so strongly toward Judaism, bearing them back to the religious system from which they had come out. The drift of one’s own evil nature, always chafing to bear us from God to that which is earthly and sensuous. The drift of the pressure of temptation.
The businessman who now shamelessly follows the lowest maxims of his trade was once upright and high-minded. He would have blushed to think it possible for such things to be done by him. But he began by yielding in very trivial points to the strong pressure of competition; and when once he had allowed himself to be caught by the tide, it bore him far beyond his first intention.
Are you drifting? You can easily tell. Are you conscious of effort, of daily, hourly resistance to the stream around you, and within? Do the things of God and heaven loom more clearly on your vision? Do the waters foam angrily at your prow as you force your way through them? If so, rejoice! but remember that only divine strength can suffice to maintain the conflict, and keep the boat’s head against the stream. If not, you are drifting. Hail the strong Son of God! Ask him to come on board, and stay you, and bring you into port. FB Meyer
It is so easy, and so pleasant, to drift. To lie back, relax, and let yourself go wherever the waters will carry you. Any dead fish can go with the stream! All that we need to do end up in hell is to neglect to be saved. Not to believe is to be condemned. John 3:18 he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Truly the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Great Salvation -> Great Neglect!
If I were to offer you a cheque for £10M you might laugh thinking that it was more rubbery than gilt! Yet how you would kick yourself if it turned out to be real and you had treated it as a joke. If neglect of a great offer is a great folly, how much more foolish is it to neglect so great Salvation?
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, 4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?
This so great salvation is the work of the Lord Himself! Jehovah, the Lord of life and glory, the King of kings and Lord of lords, all powerful, all wise, but also infinite in love and goodness, utterly truthful, reliable and consistent - totally trustworthy. When we neglect His work of salvation we reject Him too. Do not neglect to be saved, or you will rue that neglect through out the whole of eternity.
The judgment for neglect
1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first
We read in the Old Testament how God punished people for their neglect. The classic case is that of the flood, but He also judged His own people for their neglect. There are many examples of this during the time of the Exodus and indeed throughout the whole of Israel’s history. But how can God take such a harsh approach with something like neglect? It is not as if we mean any harm?
The tendency of our age is to minimize God’s righteous judgment on sin. It seems to be prevalently thought that, because our dispensation is one of love and mercy, therefore there is the less need to dread the results of sin. But the inspired writer here argues in a precisely contrary sense. Just because this age is one of such tender mercy, therefore sins against its King are more deadly, and the penalties heavier. In the old days no transgression, positive, and no disobedience, negative, escaped its just recompense of reward; and in these days there is even less likelihood of their doing so. The word spoken by the Son is even more steadfast (i.e., effective to secure the infliction of the punishment it announces) than the word of angels. FB Meyer
During World War II a young army captain was hit by enemy fire while dragging a seriously wounded sergeant to safety. Both were taken to an army hospital. The officer died, but the rescued soldier re covered. The captain’s parents, having been informed about the heroism of their son, invited the sergeant to their home for dinner. He accepted the invitation, but when he arrived he was not only late, but in a half-intoxicated condition. All the while he was there he acted boorishly, said nothing about the one who had saved his life, wolfed down his food, and left without even saying thanks for their gracious hospitality. As soon as he had gone, the mother burst into tears, exclaiming, ’To think that our son had to die for an ungrateful person like that!’
We need to understand the contempt which we show to God when we ignore this great salvation. We are making light of it and saying that the gift and death of His beloved son is a little thing that does not merit our urgent consideration. Ro 2:4 do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Why on earth do people imagine that after all God has done, supremely in the sacrifice of His only Son, to make a way of salvation — He will trifle with it and set it all aside? Do you really think that the great God will wink benignly on the day of judgement and say: “Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. I just sent my Son to die, but it really doesn’t matter that you ignored His sacrifice and were too busy to do anything about my warnings!”
1 Have you any room for Jesus,
He who bore your load of sin?
As He knocks and asks admission,
Sinners, will you let Him in?
Room for Jesus, King of Glory!
Hasten now His Word obey;
Swing the heart’s door widely open,
Bid Him enter while you may.
2 Room for pleasure, room for business,
But for Christ the Crucified,
Not a place that He can enter,
In the heart for which He died?
3 Have you any room for Jesus,
As in grace He calls again?
O today is time accepted,
Tomorrow you may call in vain.
4 Room and time now give to Jesus,
Soon will pass God’s day of grace;
Soon thy heart left cold and silent,
And thy Saviour’s pleading cease.
Not just a message for unbelievers
It is also possible for those of us who are Christians to neglect this so great salvation. Indeed this passage is primarily addressed to believers - the writer includes himself for he says how shall we escape? We are thankful to be saved; we attend the Church services; we know the wonder of the gospel and the great cost of our salvation; we know the extent of God’s love, mercy and grace. But is there really much difference between us and our non-Christian neighbours?
We can get so taken up with the things of this world and making our life comfortable, that our love for the Lord cools. Soon we aren’t spending time with our Lord in prayer, studying or meditating upon the scriptures. Remembering the Lord at the Breaking of Bread; having fellowship with other believers, serving the Lord who died for us, or telling others of His saving grace.
This rarely happens all of a sudden, but we can drift into it bit by bit. We can easily become lazy so that we don’t want to be bothered to think about theology. Then we don’t study the Bible or want long, deep sermons. We are too tired to go out to the mid-week meeting after a busy day, soon Sunday night is difficult as well. I’ll just watch a service on TV or read a book instead. Before long we become erratic on a Sunday morning too. There are so many demands on our time!
Christ condemned such a lukewarm attitude in the Laodicean church 14 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works 15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.Rev.3
May we never drift so that our usefulness to God and our Christian testimony is destroyed. If God will judge unbelievers for neglect, how much more will He chasten believers? We know the wonder of the gospel and the great cost of our salvation. We know the extent of God’s love, mercy and grace.
1Ti 1: 18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.
What stops a ship from drifting? The answer is the anchor. As Christians we also have an anchor: Heb 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. God willing we will look more at this later on in our studies, but for now let us just note that to avoid drifting spiritually our hope must be firmly anchored in Christ alone.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen. Jude 1.
