Vol. 11 No.6 – February, 2013

Neglected Warnings

Greg Gwin

Theft prevention experts now believe that those loud noise producing alarms on cars are ineffective. In fact, they claim that in­stalling one of those devises on your auto is a waste of time and money.  But why?  Do they fail too often in actual use?  No.  Do the sirens, bells, and horns fail to make a sufficient level of noise?  No.  Well then, what’s the problem?

The problem is that there are now so many of the alarms, and so many of them are accidentally set off, that no one pays any atten­tion to them any more. How often have you heard one of those, and thought to yourself: “Oh, that’s just another one of those silly alarms going off. Nothing to worry about. I just hope the poor owner finds out before his battery runs down!” It is very much like the little boy who cried “wolf”. After a number of false alarms, no one is ready to respond when a real situation develops.

We were thinking that there may be a spiritual lesson for us here. God’s word is full of warnings and admonitions. It instructs us in the ways that we should go, and it plainly cautions about sin and its consequences. Preachers, teachers, elders, and faithful Christians are in the business of sounding out these warnings — for their own sakes and for the benefit of all others. However, when these alarms are consistently ignored, they be­gin to lose their effectiveness. People begin to think: “Don’t worry about that. That’s just the preacher doing his thing. No reason to get so upset about it.”

Hebrews 3:13 cautions us about the “deceitfulness of sin”, and warns about letting our hearts become “hardened”.  Pay attention to the alarms — your soul is in danger!