Signs of Backsliding
The story of the Prodigal Son is the go-to story of a backslider in the Bible. The man demands his inheritance early. Dad gives it to him, and he is off to the party life. Wine, woman, and song become the norm. Eventually, the money runs out, and the fellow finds himself working on a farm. To keep from starving, he begins to eat the slop he feeds the pigs. At this low point in life, he comes to his senses and returns home (Luke 15:11-32). The story is true, but it also pictures our relationship with our heavenly Father. As Christians, sometimes we backslide, we delve into sin, and run away from home.
The sins of a Christian in a backslidden state do not need to be as blatant as the prodigal’s; extra-marital sex, boozing it up, and the like. The sins may need to go no further than the heart to drive a Christian into a backslidden state.
Isaiah 1 is an interesting chapter. Moses had commanded Israel to make animal sacrifices. Some of these were daily, others were periodic, and some were yearly, but there is no question that sacrifices were part of their worship. God asks Israel, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” God goes on to tell them that He is “full of” these offerings and sacrifices, in other words, He has had enough of this.
God goes on to question why they come to the Temple and other meeting places, as He commanded them to do. Isaiah 1:12, “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?” In the next verse, God tells them that their meeting together is sin, “it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.”
They were performing the sacrifices as commanded. They were attending the services as they were commanded. So what is wrong? Isaiah 1:22, “Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.” Putting it simply, what was valuable is now worthless, and what was once sweet is now watered down. Going into more detail, the end of verse five says, “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.”
The head was sick. God was no longer in their thought process. Prayer, at best, was a passing thought. Bible reading was sporadic, if that. Remember what Jesus said: “If a person is faithful in that which is least, he is also faithful in that which is much” (Luke 16:10). If a person is not considering God in the small things of daily life, they will not consider Him in major decisions. God is part of the thought process when we read and study His Word to discover what He thinks about this and that. Then, we take that to prayer about the things in our lives that are not specifically outlined in the Scripture.
This lack of God in our thoughts is the sickness of the head Isaiah speaks of, and it leads directly to the faint heart God rebukes them for. A person is not going to have faith in someone they never think of. When we love someone, they are constantly on our minds. How can we say we love God if we never think of Him or consider Him in our decisions?
There are Christians today who are in the same state that Isaiah warns us about. They attend the solemn meeting, and they sacrifice by giving of their time, money, and resources. Yet the mind is far from God, and the heart in backsliding is selfishness. Proverbs 14:14, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways…”
The definition of love is seen in the beginning of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave…” When you love someone or something, you give yourself to it. You devote time and effort, and it becomes a priority in your life. Decisions are not made with that person in mind. How will your choice affect them? How will it make them feel? Will what I do hinder or strengthen them? When we love, we almost subconsciously give. Therefore, the opposite of love is taking for ourselves; the opposite of love is selfishness. This is why the backslider’s heart is filled with his own ways.
There is an example of this in the New Testament. The church of Ephesus is one of the seven churches of Revelation (Revelation 2:1-7). God praises the church for their works and labor, their patience, their hatred of sin, their knowledge of the Scripture, and their perseverance. God only has one ridicule of this church, Revelation 2:4, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
The people of the church of Ephesus were showing up, they were involved, they were doing all the right things, but their hearts had lost the love. We can do things because we love someone, or we can do things because it is our duty, or we think that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done, or because of tradition (I’ve always been the one to organize the Christmas program), the list is endless, but once we start doing things for any other motive than because of our love of God, we’ve started down the path of backsliding.
How do we fix this? How do we get the love back? The first half of Revelation 2:5 gives the answer. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works…”
Think back to when living and serving God was a labor of love. Confess that your heart hasn’t been right. Pray that God returns the love that somehow slipped away. All will then be well.
Revelation 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Preacher Tim Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Indiana. His weekly column “Preacher’s Point” may be found at: www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com