The Slow Departure From Christ (July 31, 2005)

"Guard your heart."

I remember that admonition from a message given to a group of us pastors by the president of the Baptist General Conference some years ago. It is from Proverbs 4:23: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." I don't remember much else of his sermon, except that he was concerned about Christian leaders who fall away, and he urged each of us to be vigilant about our own walk with Christ.

That phrase "guard your heart" came to mind after I tried to answer a missionary friend who asked me why another missionary had apostatized. I wrote, "I have no idea why she turned her back on God - any more than I know why Judas betrayed Christ, or why Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim 1:19-20), or why Demas "loved this world" (2 Tim 4:10). I just know that it happens. Billy Graham's friend and fellow evangelist Charles Templeton became an atheist. I don't know why."

In the parable of the sower (Luke 8:5-15), Jesus said that some fall because the devil takes the word from their hearts; others because of trial and testing; and others because they care about life's "worries, riches and pleasures." Beyond that, I'm not sure the "why" question has an answer. Why do some succumb to the devil's attack, or break faith under pressure, or fall into temptation? God knows.

In one of his books C. S. Lewis notes that apostates never seem to reach their state of unbelief by careful reasoning and thought, or with decisive, conscious renunciations that are the reverse image of their conversions. Instead, they just gradually drift into their loss of faith. They find that they have rejected it almost by default, having crept away with slow, imperceptible steps that are inevitably joined to acts of disobedience. I think Lewis was right.

For the love of God, beware of those slow, imperceptible steps. Guard your heart. Read the Scriptures, pray daily, and don't even think about skipping church this Sunday. Do good and shun evil, and trust Jesus. I'm afraid my counsel is no more profound than that.