Oft told has been the story of the lad who explained his falling out of bed with the words, “I went to sleep too close to where I got in!” That might be the sobering and sad epithet of some members of the church. Too many have mistakenly taught, “...and now complete your obedience by being baptized into Christ” (cf. Galatians 3:26f; Romans 6:3,4). That converting act is not a completion, but a new-birth-beginning, to do good works, “which God afore prepared that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

What progress are you currently making in your growth in “grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18)? Earlier Peter challenged those, who had purified their souls in their obedience to the Truth” (at baptism—I Peter 1:22), to enact new growth by “putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, envy and slander of every kind” (I Peter 2:1). He even gave instructions of how to so grow—”...as new born babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you may grow thereby unto salvation (verse 2). A newborn babe consistently has that hunger urge about every 4 hours, 24 hours a day! Has that ever been Your urge?? If not, you may have gone to sleep too close to where you got in!!! 

The Hebrew writer warned some, “When by reason of time you ought to be teachers, you have need again, for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food...solid food is for the mature, who because of practice (not sleeping-dk) have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14). 

Jesus, in early life, set the standard for sleeping saints, when He “kept increasing in wisdom [mentally prepared] and stature [physically fit] and in favor with God [spiritually strong] and man” [socially adjusted] (cf. Luke 2:52). Check it over. That is a perfect growth pattern. In which area are You best prepared? In which area do You need to be growing? Above all, you don’t want to fall out of bed—or uh—fall from grace!! (cf. Galatians 5:4-6).