Saved, but now our response

In today’s devotional I read John 5 among a few others.  In the opening of John 5 Jesus heals the man at the well that has been crippled for 38 years, but was unable to get to the pool by himself to be healed.  Jesus asked him “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6 and the man gave the excuse of not being able to get into the well to be healed.  Then Jesus told him, “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8.  So he did it and walked away.

Later on Jesus met up with the man again and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  John 5:14.  Why did Jesus have to tell him this on the second meeting and not the first?  Did he forget to give him that instruction?  Doubtful.  I think we all have a tendency to be very grateful at the time of rescue, but as time passes we start to fall back into our old ways because that is what we are comfortable with.  We soon forget what it was like in our suffering, but easily remember our pleasure in our sinful ways.

So how do we keep from falling back into those sinful ways once we are away from them?  We have to be in the Word of God and study it so that its wisdom would be written on our hearts and that we would be strengthened by it.  Although it takes more than just reading the words in the bible, it says this in John 5:38-40

38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

          So we need to understand who it is that the bible testifies about and believe in Him, because only through Jesus are we saved.  That is why we must remain in the Word daily, otherwise we will fade back into the sinful world in which we live.  Sure we can listen to sermons every Sunday at church, but they are soon forgotten and as we are back in the world for the rest of the week we forget.  We are just as the Jewish leaders that Jesus is talking to in John 5:33-35,

33 "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth.34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

          One of the key phrases that stuck out to me in these passages was that they chose for a TIME to enjoy the light.  I think we chose for a time to believe, when it is a time that we need it in our own minds.  Then we soon forget or put it off in the back of our minds until we need it again.  Bottom line is that we must live in that light on a daily basis and walk in it and not just when it suits our situation or when we are in church Sunday morning.  The world is ready to swallow us right back up if we even give it half a chance, but as long as we remain in the light darkness cannot touch us.