Will you ever lose your first love for Jesus (Rv 2:4), fall away from the faith (2 Cor 11:3), and become a backslider? (Jas 4:8) Will you begin in the Spirit but end in the flesh? (Gal 3:3) After fleeing "a polluted world by recognizing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," will you be "caught up and overcome in pollution once more"? (2 Pt 2:20) It is better "not to have recognized the road to holiness" than to fall away from the faith (2 Pt 2:21). A fallen-away Christian is in a worse condition than that of a non-Christian (2 Pt 2:20; see also Lk 11:24-26). It would have been better if a fallen-away Christian had never been born (see Mt 26:24).

Therefore, "be solicitous to make your call and election permanent, brothers; surely those who do so will never be lost. On the contrary, your entry into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for" (2 Pt 1:10-11). "Hold fast to faith, be firmly grounded and steadfast in it, unshaken in the hope promised you by the gospel" (Col 1:23).

Even when the mass apostasy occurs and Christians in unprecedented numbers fall away from their love for the Lord (2 Thes 2:3), by God's grace we will not be "among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and live" (Heb 10:39). Never stop loving Jesus. Never love Him less. Love Him fully forever.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, February 22, 1999

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 24, 1999