Many longtime members are neglecting their wonderful calling, not striving to study and comprehend God's way. They are relaxing their efforts in keeping His laws, Sabbath, and holy days. Their vision of God's purpose has become clouded or lost, and instead of being filled with excitement and zeal for God, they are letting down, endangering their salvation. Some no longer feel the need to pray and study daily, making excuses for their lack of time. It is of paramount importance to keep a firm grip on the true teachings of God's Word and to motivate one another to stand tall in the Word of God. We ought to have great love for God's laws and each other, performing the appropriate works attendant to our calling. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We must stir the embers, fan the flame, and be zealous in our love and obedience to God, for the finish line is much closer than when we began.

Despite their advanced understanding, the Hebrews were drifting spiritually to the point of neglecting the salvation that God had begun in them. Their apathetic trajectory and lazy drifting could bring them to the point of willful sin and eternal death if they failed to wake up and change course. The urgency and gravity of the warnings in Hebrews tie directly to the principles of drawing near to God, holding fast to the confession of hope, and considering one another. Being mindful of these spiritual qualities will keep us from sliding into willful sin and losing our eternal life. Withdrawing from fellowship, though sometimes appropriate or necessary, can be a dangerous move, as considering one another is crucial to spiritual development and should be contemplated only in the direst of circumstances.

On our personal God-led pilgrimage to the Kingdom of God, we face trials and distractions that can lead to spiritual drifting. Distractions, often minor, can cause us to overlook details, become indifferent, or leave tasks undone, potentially damaging our salvation. Like Demas, who abandoned his calling due to the appeal of the world, we risk being pulled away from our focus on God's purpose. A distraction can start as a fleeting thought, but if not addressed quickly, it may grow, diverting our minds and leading to randomness in thinking or confusion. Neglect, often triggered by distractions, is a primary concern. It begins with failing to heed, disregarding, or ignoring the invaluable guidance God provides. Such neglect can make us culpable for not safeguarding our spiritual progress. We must remain vigilant, ensuring that distractions do not cause us to drift from the path God has set, as they did with Demas, who could not resist the pull of the world despite strong leadership. Our task is to maintain focus, working through chaos and resisting the pressures of a distracting world that seeks to hinder our journey to salvation.

We are asked to remember that every thought and deed, even the most minute, determines whether our hearts and minds are aligned with Christ. Remembering the story of the Titanic where the tip hid the massive iceberg that destroyed the mighty vessel, we are reminded that the smallest thoughts influence what we show to the world to God. Using the example of Christmas, while some aspects of the worldly holiday might not bother us, we can be prone to let things slide (especially with close friends and family) and show agreement with the ethics of the world and the sinful ways of the surrounding cultures. Even if we are okay with it in our own minds and it is buried deep within the iceberg of the mind, it can eventually show through and influence the tip of what we see. Focusing on Hebrews 4, we see that every thought from large to miniscule matter to God. We should always have the appropriate thoughts, actions, and attitude, from the largest actions shown to the world to the smallest thoughts hidden deep in our minds.

We are living at the end of a collapsing political, economic and cultural age. The greatest danger for God's people in such times is not the upheaval itself, but instead spiritual drift, neglect, and hardening of the heart. Drawing heavily from the book of Hebrews, we learn that salvation is not merely a past event, but an ongoing relationship and participation in a covenant that can be neglected, but with horrible serious consequences, such as Israel, Zedekiah, and even Elijah experienced as Elijah experienced loss through unbelief and misaligned priorities. We, as God's called-out saints, must avoid distraction in lesser things, such as national crises, work, media, or normalized immorality, all of which can produced "spiritual sclerosis," making us insensitive to God's voice. Hebrews repeatedly emphasizes urgency: "today" we must refocus on Christ's supremacy, nurturing faith through obedience, study of God's word, faithful Sabbath observance, serving as a safeguard against hardening. In this unstable world, the only solution is to decisively prioritize our relationship with God above all else, because that relationship exclusively is salvation and the only secure footing at the end of an age.