These are all passages that have absolutely nothing at all to do with a person giving up, losing ... their salvation. That is NOT the topic of any of them.
Mat 13:19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. (Not Saved) 20 "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. (Not Saved) 22 "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. (Not Saved) 23 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." (Saved)
Unless your belief produces a permanent change of life, for the rest of your life, It isn’t salvation. Confessing Jesus as Lord, Master, Ruler, one who’s desires you habitually seek out and seek to live in accordance with … when it is an absolute lie, doesn’t save. Only confessing what is true saves. (Those that are saved, even if they commit sins the Gentiles consider heinous, will die physically (1co. 5) or “sleep” 1 Co. 11, but they do not lose their salvation.)
Mat 24:44 "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 "Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 "Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 ''But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(Another case of, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, when you do not do as I say. Drawing near with the lips while the heart is far away isn’t a sign of salvation. It’s a sign of never having been saved.)
Mat 18:28 "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe.' 29 "So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.' 30 "But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 "So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 "Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 'Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?' 34 "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 "My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."
(If you truly understand, AND BELIEVE the tremendous debt you owe God, and the price He bore to save your miserable life, then you aren’t going to have any problem forgiving someone for not paying you back 3 months wages. However, if you really don’t understand or believe the debt God says you owe, or that He has forgiven you for it, forgiveness of others is pretty much impossible… but they owe me! The problem isn’t lose salvation. The problem is that they never even understood it at all, and ergo, you can’t believe what you can’t even fathom. This is another one of those, If you ____, you will ____. Passages.)
Mar 4:13 And He *said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? 14 "The sower sows the word. 15 "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
(See Commentary on Mat 13:19)
Mar 11:25 "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 ["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."] (Yep, one of the ways we know whether or not a person really has saving faith is whether or not they still believe there are people in the world who “OWE” them because of the bad things they have done. A failure to understand and believe the severity of the debt we owed God, and the tremendous price paid for us while we were yet sinners and hostile to God is not a sign of “losing” or giving up salvation. It is a sign of never having had it in the first place.)
Mar 13:19 "For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. 20 "Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days. 21 "And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ'; or, 'Behold, He is there'; do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, (It isn’t) the elect. 23 "But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance. (Also, this is not about salvation or losing it. It’s about how hard things will be in the end times for those who are left here. No wording whatsoever about salvation or going to hell.)
Luk 8:11 "Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12 "Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved. 13 "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 "The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
(Just like in the previous usages of this parable in Mat and Mark, only the last group ever was saved in the first place. The rest never lose salvation or give it up because they never had it.)
Luk 12:42 And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? 43 "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 44 "Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 "But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; 46 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 "And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, 48 but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
(Still same issue. Does stating Jesus is Lord save everyone who says the magic words? Does going to church save you? At what point are you saved? If Jesus can say, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord if you do not do as I say?”, and, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” What does it say if you aren’t figuring out and doing as He says as a habit and way of life. What does it say if you haven’t figured out and aren’t doing His commandments as a habit and way of life. It’s not about profession. It’s not about associating with the wheat. If you are a tare, all the association in the world isn’t going to help you. Yes, there are degrees of punishment in hell (See also Romans 2) and yes, if you know more and thus don’t do it, your condemnation is greater than those that do not know and are disobedient.)
Joh 6:60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? 62 "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" 68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."
(The word disciple means follower. There are those that physically followed Jesus, and there were those that kept following Him no matter what. There are even disciples (Followers) of Jesus who betrayed Him and never were Christians (Like Judas.) There is no proof of perseverance ergo no proof of salvation for the former group.)
Joh 12:44 And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 "He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. 46 "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. 47 "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
(Yes, rejecting His word is proof that you never were His.)
Joh 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. (How about if we phrase it this way, those who truly believe in Christ will persevere (Abide in Him) till the day they die. Or, those that go out from us do so for they were never truly of us. It all fits.)
