There are many warnings in scripture regarding the consequence of departing from the straight path. It stands to reason that it is both possible and consequential to stray. If not, the warnings are extraneous.
One example is the call to Christian growth found in Peter’s second epistle:
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-11).
A simple reading of this text reveals why it is important to live a righteous life. It is not something that you merely should do, but something God’s requires! Consider the bold sections of the text, and their significance:
- If you add these characteristics you will not be barren nor unfruitful. If you don’t add them, you may . So what? Well, Jesus said that unfruitful branches are gathered and thrown “into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:6).
- You can forget you were cleansed from your sins. To be enlightened but lose what you have brings a need for renewal that is impossible (Hebrews 6:4-6).
- If through adding these characteristics your call and election can be made sure; then not adding them can bring uncertainty. That is why Paul told the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
- Adding these characteristics precludes stumbling, and provides an abundant entrance into heaven. But our names can be blotted out (obliterated, erased) from “the Book of Life” (cf. Revelation 3:5), if we do not overcome. If sins can be erased (Acts 3:19), then our written names can be erased from the Book of Life in the same way.
This is the reason for the warnings. Heed them and live! Ignore them to your own eternal peril!
