Few minutes before I started writing this piece, I asked Ben few questions and one sincere answer he gave me on correction was displayed on the screen of my phone the exact way it would appear here, thus: “I think correction implies truthful admonition, reality of issues, the implication of stiff-headedness … And finally an encouragement“.
On that note, I wish to truthfully admonish us and encourage us to seek out the truth of the gospel; to assume that nothing is implied by the scripture unless the holy spirit tells us so; to look beyond the endless motivational speaking and permissibility of the subtly anti-kingdom life knowing that those motivational/permissibility talks (which is always in line with logical thinking) may not be totally wrong the same way fallacy is never a full blown lie. My perspective, I assure you would never be the most correct bearing in mind that the vegetarian is not a sinner neither is he that eats all things a sinner. None of them is outside the clan of saints considering the truth that they are just trying to please our master, Jesus Christ (Rom 14:1-23).
I am filled with conviction, the same way water fills the ocean, that salvation is not the kind of gift that you are permitted to keep no matter what you do. By implication, one can be saved today and tomorrow darned. Before you start dragging me to the synagogue where the high priests would confirm me guilty and order that I be put to death by stoning as my punishment, hear me out. I know I shop left and you Shop right.
We all know of zealous brother Demas that Paul, the field marshal of Missions acknowledged in his letter to the Collosians. Am sure Demas must have been a born-again, holy ghost-filled, tongues speaking believer who had no need to meet Paul when the sun and countless people had gone to sleep to inquire of the kingdom. But at a time, t, when the going got tough, he played the wise and went to the house of plenty. Allow me to categorically tell you that Paul did not call him a sinner for his action of loving the present world but maybe if you consider 1 John 2:15 & James 4:4, you may have a standing on what cadre Demas should be placed in. If he loved the present world and we can tell people that our God and this world can not be accommodated in the same house, life, we can say that Demas became worldly and fell out of Christ. But we just can’t wrap his story up just like that. He is still living, so ’em still get hope’ to be saved again. But what if he rejects the second chance till he dies? Well, if you know what happens to lands that enjoys producing thorns, we can say that Demas would embrace that. Am I trying to say that God is so heartless that he would forget our labour of love? No! Am I saying that Demas deserved no mercy if he never repented? No!
God demands that we be patient when hard times strike us because the only ticket to getting his promise is faith and patience. If Demas lost faith and became impatient, do you think he still deserve the promise for those that wait till the end? Have you ever seen where an athlete that drops in the course of a race got to be crowned the winner? Enough of these questions!
I know you might be preparing to argue it out with me but the truth is, ‘I won’t reply’. We only need to look deeper into the scriptures and then stop quoting the scriptures out of context. If once saved our salvation becomes irreversible, why would Paul after telling us about the works Jesus had done to safeguard our salvation start warning us against sin. O! Am sorry, he must be talking to unbelievers or probably those that claim to believe but do not.ah! Satan is roaming around seeking whom to devour and believers are not in his list ‘cos they are saved? You know the truth.
He told them that if they willfully sinned; if they carefully plan and lie, cheat others, steal, even kill themselves, they would face God’s wrath. Why? Jesus brought a new covenant which was aimed at making the old one perfect. Sin is not allowed. He would teach us to deny ungodliness (Titusville 2:11&12). If you think that grace pardons sinning; making a practice of sin, am sorry. Grace is more demanding. Grace says that it can not be accommodated in such a Heart. Ask Jesus and he would tell you that the way I looked at sister Nkechi was actually a sin and I deserved to pay the price for it…… But because I am his student, he would tell me to go and sin no more the same way he told the woman and if you try to protest, he would ask you to cast the first stone if you were clean; yet he would continue teaching to get my heart clean. Why? Out of the abundance of my heart, I would certainly act. That’s a funny way of letting you know that He is after the cause of my depravity and not the symptoms. But have you considered what my plight would be if I failed to learn? A Tree that does not bear fruit has one thing awaiting it: to be cut down and used as source of energy. That’s the verdict.
If God tries correcting a believer who is living wrongly and such a person rejects his advice, what happens to sons of disobedience would be their reward no matter how many years they have worked for God. Salvation is not a permanent asset for those that made up their minds to continue in sin.
Christ a poet 