What causes a Christian to backslide?
Many reasons can contribute to this situation. When Christians stop living a holy life it is because they listen to the world. They accept the advice from their unsaved friends, relatives, neighbors, fellow employees, schoolmates, teachers, and from television, movies, commercials, magazines, books, Internet, etc. Once they fall into the trap of ungodly counsel they live like the wicked (stand in the path of sinners). Eventually they will become just like the unsaved and scoff at the Bible, Christians and even God.
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).
When a person pays attention to the temporal things of this world and looses his or her eternal perspective, then trouble can set in. Without a strong personal walk with the Lord by submitting our will to His, the reality of eternity can take a back seat to the self-indulgent opportunities that exist right now in this fallen world. Also, within Christian circles there are those who set poor examples to others and some believers eventually become discouraged and see little difference between the secular world and Christianity.
Poor church leadership is another contributing problem where there is often little guidance for those who need it. When pastors and Christian leaders are caught in their sins such as adultery, theft, and greed, then some believers will seriously question their faith as a whole and question if there is any validity to the faith at all.
It is important to keep our eyes focused on the Lord and not people. Christian or not, people will always let us down. But we can always count on the Lord. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. Don't let the bad behavior of some professing Christians keep you from an eternity with the Savior. The primary difference between the unsaved and the saved is that the saved are "forgiven."
"But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak" (1 Corinthians 8:9).
