Why should believers work and maintain their testimony if they cannot lose salvation?
Believers should work and maintain their testimony so they will not be set aside as unusable, even though salvation is secure. The warning is not loss of salvation but becoming a castaway—like a leaking vase kept on a shelf as an ornament, no longer functional for the Lord’s service.
Les explains that the concern is not losing salvation but avoiding being put on the shelf. The one speaking brought his body into subjection so he could run the spiritual race and not, after preaching to others and fulfilling his missionary work, become a castaway. That does not mean he would lose salvation. Using the potter’s house analogy, Les says a beautiful vase with a fine crack could not hold liquid, but it was too good to throw on the trash heap, so the potter set it on a shelf and sold it only as an ornament. In the same way, believers will not lose salvation, but they should work and maintain their testimony so they are not set aside as no longer usable. Even if they have all the outer decorations of being a believer, the desire is that they also be functional and do what the Lord saved them to do.
More Questions
Why should a believer work to maintain his testimony if he cannot lose his salvation?
Because we will not lose our salvation, the aim is to work and maintain our testimony so we will not be put on the shelf as no longer usable, even though we may still have all the outward decorations of being a believer.