7 Ways Believers Neglect Their Salvation by Joseph Mattera for Charisma News
The writer of Hebrews says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (2:3, NKJV).
The Greek word for neglect, (“having neglected” in its original tense in Greek), is “amelēsantes.” This means to pay no attention to, to make light of or to be negligent of. See Matthew 22:5 (ESV) for another instance when this word is used, i.e., “they paid no attention.”
Many Christians, including evangelicals, have made it a habit to neglect the basics of the faith, thus operating in a dangerous assumption that their salvation is always a settled fact despite how they live. However, this is not the teaching of the original apostles who wrote the sacred text. Even St. Peter admonished believers to ensure their calling and election (2 Peter 1:10).
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The following are seven ways in which we can neglect our salvation:
1. Sporadic church attendance: When I first came to Christ in the late 1970s, committed Christians rarely missed Sunday services. Then about two decades ago, committed Christians came to church about three times per month. Then, around 14-15 years ago, so-called committed Christians started coming to church one to two times per month or less. Around 2008, our church attendance dropped by about 25%. I thought many people were leaving our church, but when I checked into it, I was shocked to find out that we were not losing members but that they were coming to church less frequently.
The writer to the Hebrew Christians warned us not to neglect church assemblies but to exhort one another daily lest our hearts get hardened (Hebrews 3:12-13; Hebrews 10:25). The lack of frequent fellowship and mutual admonition is connected to the hardening of one’s heart resulting in the neglect of one’s salvation (Hebrews 10:26).
