The most devastating sin is a strong belief that salvation can be manipulated by vain attempts to 'earn' God's favor. Faith in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is sufficient for eternal life ... yet there are those in the church who have never accepted that truth.
Christians are admonished to guard against religious beliefs that deny the importance of 'grace through faith' ...
See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:15
A 'bitter root' is a false system that can surreptitiously enter the church. Those who have adopted it look like Christians, talk like Christians, and boldly profess to be Christians; but actually trust in the old, failed covenant that relies on self-righteousness.
This apostasy is a debased 'form' of Christianity that brings subterfuge and corruption into the body; it refuses to accept God's provision ... maintaining that man can produce an acceptable righteousness on his own.
We are to be watchmen on the wall ...
Take care, brethren, 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. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end, Hebrews 3:12-14
Spiritual strife is the fruit that a 'bitter root' inevitably produces; personified by 'immorality' and 'godlessness' ... the first defiling the body; the second defiling the soul.
Salvation comes through a complete reliance upon Jesus Christ's redemptive act. Don't allow a deceptive 'religious facsimile' to influence your walk of faith.
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