Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
That ye abound more and more ...  David Lipscomb observed that life is never a static condition.  "There is no finality to progressive holiness while the believer remains on earth.  Life is marked by either growth or decay."[3] Thus the only way to avoid slipping backward is to move forward.