A theme throughout the wisdom literature is the deleterious effects of neglect or passivity, where the sluggard is both the perpetrator and recipient of ruin.

Here are five easily neglected doctrines, which, if carelessly observed or distorted, could jeopardize the salvation of God's people.

Demas became distracted by pulls of the world, which may have started by small incremental seemingly innocent thoughts, but scuttled his conversion.

It is easy to be distracted by things other than prayer, Bible study, and our relationship with God. He rarely zaps us to remind us to study and pray.

We must weed out detrimental habits that choke our lives. If we want to produce quality fruit, we must weed our garden.

All the signs point to Christ's imminent return, yet the Bible warns us not to let down. Hebrews 10 exhorts us to strive to please God and finish our course.

The Bible shows a clear pattern of how people leave the faith: looking back, drawing back, looking elsewhere, and then going backward and refusing to hear.

We must keep God's Word fresh in our minds through diligent study and practice of His way of life to keep from drifting spiritually during perilous times.

We must lay aside every weight, accept God's chastening, receive encouragement from those who have gone before, and get back into the spiritual race.

We tend to put matters behind us once we are finished with them, but we cannot afford to do this with the lessons we learn from the Days of Unleavened Bread.

The most dangerous lap we encounter is when everyone around us tends to be compromising. Today, what was once aberrant behavior is now considered normal.

God is not only powerful, but He is the source of all power. We can tap into God's power to avoid slipping into apostasy.

The book of Hebrews provides reasons to recapture flagging zeal, focusing on the reason for our hope and faith, establishing Christ's credentials.

The scattering of the church was an act of love by God to wake us from our lethargic, faithless condition. The feeding of the flock is the priority now.

Among the spiritual realities that a faithful Christian must understand is God's sense of justice. The deaths of Nadab and Abihu are a case in point.

The modern church stands in danger of allowing salvation to slip away. Hebrews gives warnings to help us turn our lives around so we do not fall short.

Hebrews is addressed to a people living at the end of an era, who were drifting away, had lost their devotion, and were no longer motivated by zeal.

Hebrews warns us to resist the pernicious pulls of the world and the flesh that cause us to spiritually drift, particularly pride and double-mindedness.

We must guard our time, not allowing busyness and involvement with activities of the world to prevent us from forming a deep intimacy with God.

What do an astronomer, a microbiologist, and a photographer have in common? They each use a lensed instrument to see God's physical creation in detail.

The church of God today resembles a patient languishing from a deadly disease, resulting from a diet of spiritual junk food and neglecting the bread of life.

Everything that we go through has been engineered by God. We are His workmanship, created for good works, a response to the faith He has given us.

Focusing on material and temporal things undermines faith. The Sabbath is holy time, created for building faith, energizing our minds for fellowship with God.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins is prophetic concerning the attitude of Christians at the end time. The wise and foolish virgins each have things to teach us.

We cannot become weary of well-doing, allowing our first love to deteriorate, looking to the world for satisfaction. Here are 8 tests of our love for Christ.

God reveals a grand secret through David: namely, that spiritual growth will come to people who set the Lord before oneself continuously.

God personally handpicks individuals with whom He desires to form a reciprocal relationship. This relationship must be dressed, kept, tended, and maintained.

To counteract complacency, Hebrews warns against neglecting God's invitation of salvation, which He does not guarantee until sanctification has run its course.

Our care in following God's instructions must be thorough, leaving no place for inattention, short cuts, negligence, or doing only enough to get by.

In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus warns the Pharisees about crossing a line that cannot be uncrossed, an act commonly called 'the unpardonable sin.'

Judging the state of other peoples' conversion is a fast track to committing the unpardonable sin. God's thoughts and plans are far higher than ours.

As we exercise circumspection, we must take God's will for us into our cautious examining in our prayers, study, and meditation, avoiding the world.

The Parable of the Talents is often confused with the Parable of the Pounds. These parables illustrate Christian responsibilities from different angles.

We must thoroughly examine ourselves, exercising and strengthening our faith, actively giving love back to God, to avoid taking Passover in a careless manner.

In taking undue attention off the self, sacrifice (as an act and as a way of life) creates peace, prosperity, cooperation, and most of all, character.