I was talking with someone the other day who was worried about the troubled times that we live in, and especially as it related to God and their faith. They had mentioned a number of passages in the Bible that had come to their mind lately about falling away, or leaving the faith, or being deceived with everything that’s going on in the world. That was something that was really weighing on them. And one passage that they pointed out, in particular, was the one that’s found in 2 Thessalonians, and it’s in 2:3, and it says this, “Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first.“
And so, you can get some worried feelings reading passages like this. Could it be possible I could be deceived? What about this falling away, and it’s talking about a time before Christ returns, that the Kingdom’s not gonna come unless this happens? So, could I be vulnerable to this? Well, one of the interesting things about this particular passage, when it talks about the falling away, that’s the Greek word apostasia. We get our word apostasy from that very word. And when you really dig into it, it means to revolt, to work against something, or it can mean to abandon, in this case, abandon your faith, abandon your loyalty to God. Now, it also talks about absolute rejection in that way. And so it’s not that, well, could I be fooled? No, it’s not talking about anything like that. This is talking about a choice that people make to revolt against God, to turn their backs on God.
And so, when we look at it that way, we begin to recognise, yes, it is possible to be fooled and deceived but when you’re focused and you’re concentrated, you’re not gonna rebel. You’re not gonna work against God. When you stay close to God, God’s gonna be there helping you and assisting you every step of the way. That’s what He’s promised. He’s promised the best for us. And so certainly, it’s a reminder. We don’t ever wanna be deceived. We don’t wanna be fooled.
And so, to combat that, stay close to God. Be sure we pray every day. Maintain your relationship with God. Don’t lose touch. Read His word. Stay in the Bible. And in a sense, stay dedicated. Ask God to continue to give you that zeal and enthusiasm to draw close to Him, no matter what’s going on in the world. And when we do those things, we would never fall away. We would never revolt against God. So we can claim His promises. And as we stay close to Him, He says he’s never going to leave us or forsake us.
