IF you continue in the faith

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister

We WILL be presented HOLY, UNBLAMEABLE, and UNREPROVEABLE through our SAVIOR to GOD the FATHER

-   IF  -

Notice that word carefully. It's a tiny word but it holds a lot of meaning. IF.

Not you will be presented that way no matter what, but you will be presented that way IF- meaning if you meet the requirements.  We all know what that means. Meeting requirements. You have to have the proper requirements for a lot of things before you can attain them. To drive, to vote, to ride certain amusement park rides, to qualify for most jobs, to get married, to get divorced, to obtain a rebate, to win contests, and so on.  Proper requirements are necessary for so much. IF you don't have those requirements then you do not get to vote, you do not get to drive, you do not get to ride that ride, you do not win that contest, you don't get the job, you surely won't get the rebate you're wanting, and as for marriage and divorce well you can kiss them good bye too. These are facts we live with all our lives long. We know what the word IF means. If you do this then that will take place, if you fail to do this then that won't take place- sounds simple and very straight forward, easily comprehended.

So here we have an IF… 'IF ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be NOT moved away from the HOPE of the gospel'

You have an active role once again. People sometimes think that all you have to do to be considered holy, unblameable, unreproveable in the sight of God is accept Jesus as their Savior once and that's all she wrote. Accept that He died for them and then go on and live however they please without a single other thought about the matter.  If that were true then what does it mean to CONTINUE in the faith- grounded and settled, unmovable from the hope of the gospel?

What does the word continue mean? It means don't stop. We cannot stop having faith, we cannot allow ourselves to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. Jesus has to be a REAL belief to us, a daily belief, not a haphazard, occasional thought in our lives. He has to LIVE in our LIVES as something very, very real. That hope must be a hope that is daily! If we dare to neglect the hope of Christ we are risking eternal life. The 'IF YE CONTINUE' is put there for a reason.  If it were different we would be told to accept Christ one time and then go about your life, but we are NEVER told that, not ever.


Heb 2:1  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.
Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
Heb 2:3  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

We cannot neglect so great salvation! IF (and there's that word again) IF we neglect salvation we will NOT have salvation. We really do have to give the more earnest HEED to the things we hear in the WORD of GOD, we can't let them slip, we just can't.

We must CONTINUE in the FAITH. We must be GROUNDED. We must be SETTLED, We must NOT be moved. We MUST have the HOPE of the Gospel in us ALWAYS!