There isn’t a more tragic story in all of the Bible than the story of Judas Iscariot. The Lord knew that Judas was a devil from the beginning (John 6:64). Sooner or later we will all know a person who resembles Judas. Chances are you have already known one. We will all know someone who once seemed to walk with Jesus, but now is far from Jesus. Do you know someone like that? That is a tragedy.

The seeds of doubt, the seeds of unbelief, the root of bitterness, the seeds of spiritual stubbornness, the seeds of spiritual indifference, apathy, laziness, self-justification and carelessness about the most profound person, and the most profound matters, that any human being could ever come face to face with. Those are the seeds of the destruction of a soul.

Apostasy, though finally revealed in decisive choices, reaches that point slowly, over time, in a slow slide that reveals that something is really, really profoundly wrong.

The basic message of these verses and the basic purpose of these verses is clear as a bell.
The basic message is that we dare not walk away from Jesus. All that is left outside of Jesus is the certain expectation of damning judgment. The basic purpose of the verses, then, is that those who have ears to hear what is outside of Jesus, would be affected by the knowledge in such a way that they will never stop following Jesus. The purpose is that Christians would be motivated to practice what we have seen in the previous verses. We must go on with Christ. We must move on beyond the first instruction concerning Christ. We must not waver in our confidence in and our confession of Jesus.