if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off: Scripture often teaches that those who remain faithful to the end will be saved. Paul’s warning here has led to different views about what he means.
Some understand Paul to be saying that true believers can stop trusting God and therefore fail to be saved in the end. Others think Paul is using the image as a warning and should not be understood in a strict or literal way. From this view, Paul is speaking about people who appear to believe for a time, but whose lack of genuine faith later becomes clear.