Day 23, Year 1 Do You Want to be Drifted Away?

… “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” (Hebrews 2:1 NKJV)

The Greek word for “drift away,” pararrheo, combined with the tense in the text, means “to be swept away, to be washed away, to be taken away, (thoughts or judgments) to be dissipated.” The previous days spoke of groups or individuals who could follow vanity or deceit. These verses highlight a danger faced by those who read the Bible, which is the truth we receive could be undermined by various trendies in a subjective sense around us. Indeed, if those who have received the truth do not highly treasure God’s words, they would easily be swept away by any currents of unbelief. This specifically explains the beginning emphasis of “choosing life,” as the secular societies can not tolerate God’s truth, but are filled with deceit and calamities, which leads people toward destruction. The power of evil currents could easily influence believers and drag us back into sins.

Similarly, if readers do not seriously take into account the spiritual truths mentioned over the past twenty-two days, those truths will surely be cast aside sooner or later. This could be not just a personal choice; according to today’s verse, it could be an entire community of believers being swept away. After all, faith communities are often the minority in societies. If we do not treasure the truths we have received, we risk losing them and being drifted away by various flows into worse conditions than non-believers.

As a result, people would become selfish and disobedient even though they claim their pursuit of faith. In church history, what is even more dangerous is that these self-centered people would go so far as to disguise themselves as the pseudo-truth to deceive others, as they strayed from the truth. Those who depart from the truth might still have a chance to give way to their conscience and return to the right path. However, if they depart from the truth while pretending to follow it, it becomes much harder for them to repent. If you fall into and believe in these traps of counterfeit truth, not only does it prevent you from continually experiencing God’s love (please refer to the verses of the upcoming days), but it could also make you feel a sense of dullness, weariness within, and eventually drain your lives out. Thus, anyone with a spiritual sensitivity would naturally want to escape from any currents of unbelief. We desperately need God’s help to break free from all evil influences.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you hold dear and put into practice the truth you have previously received? If there are difficulties, how would you seek the Lord’s help to overcome them?

2) What do you think could be done to resist the collective influence of evil? Besides seeking help from God, what other psychological and spiritual qualities would you need to cultivate Christian assertiveness in you?