If (or since) ye continue in the faith…       Col 1:23

How many times have we made resolutions at this time of year that have been faithfully kept? How often have we started to read/study our Bible only to neglect it after a few weeks? And so the list could go on… Perhaps one of the easiest things in the world to do is to begin something then give up half-way through. We have all had a new idea and started to do it with great enthusiasm, but the effort it requires or its demands on our time make us quickly lose interest and we usually forget about it.

Paul urges all believers to "continue in the faith...not moved away from the hope of the gospel...” It is always true that once we have been saved by God nothing will ever separate us from Him. The Lord Jesus could say, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand". However, there are things, or people, that can come into our lives which may influence us to lose sight of the goal of going on for the Lord.

The eternal security of the believer is a blessed truth which is set forth clearly in the pages of the NT. God doesn’t give us eternal life this year and take it away next. However, the Scriptures also teach, as in this verse, that true faith always has the quality of permanence, and that one who has really been born of God will go on faithfully to the end. Continuance is the proof of reality. Of course there is always the danger of backsliding, (and most of us have to one degree or another) but a Christian who falls should recover (Pro 24:16). He does not forsake the faith. Sometimes his faith grows dim, but true faith never ceases. We never give up the realisation that God has changed us. There is a new attitude, a new life imparted, and that is the sign that we cannot give up being a Christian, i.e. “we continue in the faith…”.

If a person says, "I am a Christian" and shows no change in their life, they may not be a Christian. We can only wait and see if it is real. A person can say they are Alexander the Great, but it does not follow it is true.

F F Bruce writes that...If the gospel teaches the final perseverance of the saints, it teaches at the same time that the saints are those who finally persevere - in Christ.

In other words, we are not saved by continuing in the faith. But we continue in the faith and thus give evidence that we are saved.