"We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)
Don't neglect your salvation! Salvation is something that can be neglected. It is something we must not only "have", but "keep". In the scriptures that speak about neglecting, the context is not about someone needing to get saved, although that is what we often think about. The scripture is talking about people that have already received salvation. The whole context has to do with people who are saved. The warning is that it can all be in vain if we neglect it. Many of us have seen a person’s experience that becomes vain. It becomes a lost cause. The reason it happens is because people don’t do what God shows them to do to grow and maintain their salvation. Even though we are saved, we need the Lord to save us from things that are facing us, and that we will face in the future. Not from sins of the past, but from going back into sin. From being deceived, becoming lukewarm, becoming discouraged. We need to be ready to respond and prepare - when God shows us: "it is time to prepare for what is ahead!" "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" (Hebrews 2:1-4)
We need to give the more earnest heed. The whole context is to the saved. What does neglect mean? It doesn’t mean necessarily that you are letting down on things that you have. It could mean that you are neglecting to prepare for what you can’t see in the future. Sometimes God reveals things that will come, but he usually doesn’t give us the details. He just warns us to "gird up" and start preparing by being diligent to our devotions and to the study of his Word, and to "watching." At times, we realize that we should have saved more money for things that are now coming upon us. We have learned that we need to live in such a way that we are not living just for today. We need to have that buffer of "things" laid up in case of difficult times ahead. We don’t know what our income and health will be in the future. People who are in poverty tend to have a certain mindset. To understand them better, you must understand how they think. Much of their thinking is not long-term because they are striving just to survive. Their cultural thinking is to not to gather and put things away for the future. It is a mindset that they may have grown up with, and because of it, they are never able to progress beyond the daily "surviving". Now think with me: is that the way we are living spiritually, just on what we need today? Is it a day to day operation with no thought of preparing for what trials or opportunities might be ahead? Are we living in poverty, spiritually? Do we ever have a vision ahead for the salvation of souls, and how we might be used to help them? Are we failing to prepare for such a day? What would happen if someone asked us how to get saved? Is it something that only a minister or teacher could do? What is it that God could do with us if we were prepared to do it? Are we living in poverty spiritually? Are we preparing ourselves to be ready by spiritually gathering and saving for the future? The Lord will long-suffer for a time, but not forever. The day will come when we will miss the opportunity, or completely lose out - because we failed to prepare for what is ahead.
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