Forgetfulness: Dangers of Failing to Remember

Articles From Our Bulletins

Philip C. Strong
05/07/19 - Bulletin Articles

My dad, especially later in life, was fond of saying, “Sometimes my forgetter works better than my rememberer.” As we age, many of us can relate. Events, including specific details, of many years past are called to mind much easier than the name of the person we just met a few minutes ago. Though our recollection may indeed not function as well as it did when we were younger, a lack of concentration or specific attention may also play a large part. Sometimes we just don’t put forth the effort to “commit to memory” some things that we ought. But this isn’t just a problem of natural aging when it comes to things we need to remember spiritually....

The NT identifies a few things that we really need to not forget:

2Peter 1:9, Purification from Former Sins. Spiritually speaking, remembering “Where we came from” (sic) is even more important than its earthly counterpart. After enumerating the qualities, attitudes, and activities that we must be adding to our faith to insure “entrance into the kingdom” (cf. vv.1-8,10-11), Peter states, “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins,” v.9. This surely isn’t denominationalism’s “faith only” doctrine. But even more to our purposes here, forgetting our purification from past sins, and certainly what God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) did to make such possible, is a sure recipe for stumbling (returning to sin), and thus losing the very salvation we hope to attain. So please, don’t forget from whence you came- doing so will surely enable you to also forget where you’re supposed to be going!
James 1:24, What We “See” in the Mirror. In this context, James has laid out several admonitions that, if incorporated, prove one a “doer of the word” rather than “merely hearers who delude themselves,” cf. vv.19-22. Failure in these regards he then compares to one “who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was,” vv.23-24. In physical terms, even observing fully (which is the meaning of the Greek term katanoeo translated as “looks” in v.23) does no good if we immediately forget what we see, and thus fail to make the needed changes or corrections, v.24. How much more such forgetfulness becomes a problem in spiritual terms! The solution proposed in v.25 includes a couple of factors: 1) the right mirror of God’s perfect law of liberty manifests our spiritual flaws and short-comings; 2) the right activity of looking intently (from the Greek parakrupto, to stoop down and look closely), and 3) the right purpose- to become not a “forgetful hearer” (or merely an observer), but an “effectual doer” (thus, correcting the flaws gleaned from intense scrutiny of self in the mirror of God’s word). Don’t forget what God’s word shows you about yourself as soon as you walk away from it, remember and make the corrections.
Hebrews 12:5, The Lord Disciplines Us. God loves us- abundantly and intensely, as a father loves his children. Thus, He exhorts us not to forget that such love includes discipline “for our good, that we might share His holiness,” cf. vv.7-10. No son (or daughter) enjoys such discipline at the time it is being administered, but only after being “trained by it” do they realize that “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” v.12. But these points are hard to remember while experiencing the difficulties of discipline. Thus, we often forget “the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives,” vv.5-6. When we fail to remember these things- that because God loves and wants the best for us, He disciplines, reproves, and scourges us, we murmur, complain, become discouraged (faint), or even rebel and turn back to the slavery of sin. Are you despairing over “all the bad things” going on in your life? Have you forgotten the exhortation(s) of this passage? Don’t.
2Peter 3:5, The End is Coming. Sometimes when we “forget,” whatever is forgotten is not really gone from our minds completely, it just got pushed to the back and overlooked. Such is basically the meaning of lanthano- the word translated as “escapes their notice” in 2Peter 3:5, “For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flood with water.” What these “mockers” seemed to be proclaiming was the perpetual existence of mankind, cf. v.3; i.e. that mankind had always, and thus would always, exist. But what they failed to remember, what “escaped their notice,” was that God had already destroyed the world and its inhabitants once, and has promised to so again, cf. vv.6-10. Perhaps their failure to remember was not altogether accidental- v.3 says they were “following their own lusts.” We do that too. We allow ourselves to “forget” things we don’t really want to remember, or of which we don’t want to be reminded- like the facts that our days are numbered, and that the destruction of the world and eternal judgment are coming. Do these things “escape our notice” because we don’t really want to be the “sort of people you (or we, PCS) ought to be in holy conduct and godliness,” v.11? Don’t let your lusts and desires motivate you to forget what you ought to remember. Your end, my end, the world’s end, and eternal judgment ARE coming. Remember that.

Some forgetfulness is unfortunately inevitable for most of us. But may we never forget where we came from spiritually, where we intend to go eternally, or what’s involved with getting there!