Backsliding refers to when a Christian strays from their faith and reverts to sinful behaviors. It is a serious issue that the Bible warns against repeatedly. Here are some key Bible verses about backsliding:
Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
This passage warns that those who have tasted God’s gifts and then fallen away may not be able to repent and return to the faith. It emphasizes the seriousness of backsliding.
2 Peter 2:20-22
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Peter uses very stark language here, saying it is better to never have known Christ than to turn away after knowing Him. He compares backsliding to a dog returning to vomit and a pig to the mud.
Revelation 2:4-5
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Jesus rebukes the church at Ephesus for losing their first love for Him. He calls them to repent and return to their former works, or else face discipline.
Galatians 5:7
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Paul laments how the Galatians were following Christ but then fell away from the Gospel truth.
James 5:19-20
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James encourages us to help restore wandering brothers and sisters gently back to the faith. Saving their soul covers over their sins.
Revelation 3:1-3
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”
Christ tells the church at Sardis that though they had a reputation of being spiritually alive, they are actually dead. He calls them to wake up, repent, and remember what they first received and heard.
Proverbs 14:14
The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways,
and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
This proverb contrasts the backslider, who will suffer the consequences of their sin, with the righteous, who will reap good from their ways.
Jeremiah 3:6-8
The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
Through Jeremiah, God accuses Israel of spiritual adultery. Despite His repeated calls to return, Israel refuses to repent of her idolatry.
Jeremiah 8:4-5
“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
God asks why His people continue to backslide rather than repent. Their deceit and lack of repentance angers Him.
Jeremiah 14:7
“Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
for our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you.
The prophet intercedes for Israel, admitting their sins are many and pleading for God to restore them.
Hosea 11:7
My people are bent on turning away from me,
and though they call out to the Most High,
he shall not raise them up at all.
God declares that Israel’s backsliding is so determined that even their prayers and appeals to Him now will not be answered. A grim warning.
Hosea 14:4
I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
After many warnings against backsliding, God promises to have mercy and restore Israel when they repent. His love awaits the backslider’s return.
Luke 9:62
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Looking back while plowing causes crooked rows. Jesus uses this as a metaphor warning against putting our hand to God’s work but still holding onto sin.
Luke 17:32
Remember Lot’s wife.
Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back to Sodom with longing as they fled. Jesus warns against having a backsliding heart.
John 6:66-69
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
When disciples turned back from following Christ, He asked if the twelve would also fall away. Peter responds they have nowhere else to turn for the words of eternal life.
1 Timothy 1:18-20
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Paul mentions Hymenaeus and Alexander as examples of leaders who had backslid in the faith. He had to discipline them severely in hopes of their eventual restoration.
1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.
Paul prophesies that many will backslide in the end times by following demonic teachings. We must test teachings carefully against Scripture.
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Greed can cause believers to wander from true faith. Materialism is a major cause of backsliding that we must guard against.
2 Timothy 2:12
If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.
Christ will acknowledge faithful believers. But if we disown Him, He will also disown us. Sobering warning against backsliding.
2 Timothy 4:10
For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
Paul sadly reports that Demas abandoned him out of worldly loves. Backsliding often happens when the things of this world eclipse our devotion to Christ.
Hebrews 3:12-13
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
We must encourage each other daily so that sin does not harden our hearts and shipwreck our faith. Community helps guard against backsliding.
Hebrews 10:26-27
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
The book of Hebrews gives the sternest New Testament warning against backsliding. Willful, deliberate sin after knowing Christ’s sacrifice leaves no hope.
Hebrews 10:38-39
But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
While backsliding leads to destruction, we are called to faith and perseverance that saves our souls. We must press on daily in faith rather than shrinking back.
2 Peter 1:5-9
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Growing in godly virtues keeps us progressing rather than backsliding in faith. Lack of spiritual growth leads to spiritual blindness and amnesia.
2 Peter 2:1
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
False teaching is a major source of backsliding, destroying faith in Christ. We must contend for sound doctrine to avoid apostasy.
2 Peter 2:15
Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing.
The motive of financial gain led Balaam and many since to stray from truth. Greed is a root of all kinds of backsliding.
2 Peter 3:17
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
Peter warns being carried away by lawless teaching can destroy our spiritual stability. We must reinforce our doctrine against apostasy.
1 John 2:24-25
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
Abiding in Christ’s original Gospel teaching prevents backsliding. Sticking to apostolic doctrine results in abiding in God unto eternal life.
Jude 20-21
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Through faith, prayer, and God’s love we can avoid backsliding and make it to eternal life. Active spiritual disciplines prevent apostasy.
Revelation 2:5
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Christ’s warning to the church at Ephesus to remember, repent, and return to their first works or face discipline.