What Your Familiarity with the Gospel Is Doing to You

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.”

2 Peter 2:22

The dog goes back and sniffs around. It is intrigued; it loves the vomit. The pig goes back and wallows in the mud. Why? Pigs love mud. And the unrighteous love sin. That’s why they keep going back to it.

The washed pig looks better, but it goes back to the mud. The dog feels better (you always feel better after you throw up), but it goes back to the vomit. The pig looked better, the dog felt better, but a dog is still a dog and a pig is still a pig. The only change is a change in appearance.

Peter says, “That’s the counterfeit Christian.” You had some kind of religious experience that made you look better or feel better, but you remained the same person you were before, and if that’s the case, your position is worse off than at the beginning (2:20).

Perhaps you are familiar with the truth. Other people may think you love Christ, but you know that’s not true. Your familiarity with the truth will make you more resistant to Christ than others who have never heard. Every time the gospel is preached, we are drawn nearer to Christ or we move further away. Our hearts are made softer or our hearts are made harder.

Don’t let that be true of you: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 4:7). Turn to Christ today and embrace Him as your saviour. Don’t let your familiarity with the gospel make you harder.

What is familiarity with the truth doing in your life? Drawing you nearer to Him? Or moving you further away?