Backsliding from Christ is thus a serious matter. It dishonors God, disregards Christ as Savior, grieves the Spirit, tramples God’s law underfoot, and abuses the gospel. In other words, to backslide means to depart from the Word and the ways of the Lord. Nevertheless, in every age it has been, and remains, a sin as common as it is terrible. Bent to Backsliding Although the apostle James did not use the word “backslide,” he addressed the same adulterous love of the world among the churches (James