Are we real Christians or just pretending to be Christians?
Jer 3:10 …Judah (My own people) has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the LORD.
Sometimes we hear that there are living today about two billion people who are Christians. Unfortunately the vast majority of those who profess Christianity are not in fact Christians but remain spiritually dead in their sins because they have not met Jesus’ one requirement to even see the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, they must be born again spiritually.
John 3:3 Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God." NLT
Each and every one of us must believe for ourselves and with all of our hearts that Christ, God’s Son, bore our personal sins on the Cross. And that on the basis of this alone God is willing to forgive us, provided we are willing to repent by acknowledging this life changing truth of God’s word, and start to act like we believe it. Those who profess to be Christians but have not repented, believed, and are not born again are just pretending to be Christians.
Luke 24:46-47 ...it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations...
Acts 26:20 ...That they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.
Others were born again as Christians but lost their first love and now are pretend Christians
Of those who truly are Christians sadly again the vast majority do not live as Christians, for they don’t live in that part of them that was born again where Christ dwells, their heart or spirit, but live in their human nature where sin still rules. Consequently since they are not living “In Christ” they cannot bear spiritual fruit, which is God’s primary purpose for the Christian, and are not therefore disciples of Christ. They may engage in a bunch of dead religious activities and possess a vast head knowledge of scripture verses but none of this can hide the fact that these Christians are not real Christians they are pretend Christians.
John 15:5-8 (Jesus) He who lives in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit...By this My
Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
What is a pretend Christian?
A pretend Christian pretends that they are walking with God when they are not. They pretend to know, understand and believe Bible verses when in fact they have only mentally consented to or agreed with those scriptures, but God’s words are not living in their hearts (John 5:38). Since God’s words, the very nature of Christ, do not continually flow into their hearts their lives are not being changed into the likeness of Christ, victory over sins is not being won, and God’s words made alive by God’s Spirit are not flowing from their hearts through their lips, as spiritual fruit, into the hearts of others. They may honor God with their words but their hearts are far from Him because they won’t let God, who redeemed them from Satan’s awful kingdom, take full possession of them, as Lord.
Matt15:8-9 These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips , But their heart is far from Me.
Luke 12:1 ….He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven (teaching) of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (say one thing do another)”.
Matt 23:3 ...Do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
When we only say God’s words but don’t do them, whatever faith we may have had when we heard those words, now dies, for we’ve lost those words and all the love, the power and the fear of God that was in those words to keep us living in Christ, has now disappeared.
Jam 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Pretend Christians, who are the majority, will twist the scriptures to justify themselves
The true interpretation of scripture is that given by the Holy Spirit (the only one who knows 1 Cor 2:11) to the spirit or heart of a person (the only place the true interpretation can be received 1 Cor 2:14). Since pretend Christians are not living in their hearts but in their heads, which cannot receive from God’s Spirit, then every conceivable twisting, rational-ization and misrepresentation of scripture can only follow. God warns the real Christian to beware of this and rather to continue growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
2 Pet 3:16-18 …Untaught (by God’s Spirit) and unstable people (easily moved off the
truth) twist his (Paul’s) letters to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures...Beware lest you also fall from your steadfastness, being led away with …error… But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (and you’ll never be a pretend Christian).
2 Cor 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (who sees everything, how dumb to think our hypocrisy isn’t known?)
Why are there so many pretend Christians?
Why, now as Christians, do we act falsely, trying to portray ourselves as something other than what we are, pretending to know things we don’t, feigning obedience to God, feigning faith in God and feigning love for others? This posing is the normal behavior of all human nature, so for a Christian to continue living this way is just a carry over of the life that we all lived before being born again. But why, as Christians, do we still do it? In a word, its pride, the dominant characteristic of our human nature. Pride says to itself “I’m doing Ok, I don’t need God or more of God” even though in a thousand ways it isn’t doing OK. So pride is independence from God and therefore deceived. Humility, the most basic Christian virtue, is the recognition of a total ongoing need for God, and therefore walks in the light of truth.
Prov 27:7 He who is satiated with sensual pleasures loathes a honeycomb (of God’s sweet words) but to the hungry soul every bitter thing (a correcting word) is sweet. AMP
James 4:6 …God resists the proud, But gives grace (more of His word) to the humble.
What are some of the many awful consequences of pretending to be a Christian?
We are self deceived, we walk in spiritual darkness, we remain unchanged by God, we resist the truth, we often contend with other people, we are slow to forgive, our secret sins can’t be overcome, we are receptive to teachings that excuse our failings, our hearts are hard to God and to real Christians and our consciences continue to be seared. We oppose our own selves and don’t know it, for we’ve been taken captive and are at risk of judgment.
1 Tim 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared…
2 Peter 2:3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words...their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
2 Tim 2:25-26 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance (meaning) to the acknowledging of the truth (of His words); And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. KJV
How can God change a person pretending or posing as a Christian into a real Christian?
The first part of a person’s salvation is justification, or to be made spiritually clean and right with God through having our sins removed, by God’s forgiveness, because Christ bore them on the cross. It happens the moment we repent, that is, we have a change of mind, abandoning our thoughts of self-sufficiency and acknowledging and believing the truth of the gospel. Now as Christians God intends, and our eternity depends upon, our salvation continuing through sanctification. This involves deliverance from the power of sin, a full consecration to God and progressive conformity to the likeness of Christ. If we interrupt this ongoing salvation, through pride, it cannot resume until again we are willing to repent.
Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
Now being re-cleansed from past sins we need to take Christ’s yoke upon ourselves, which is the Holy Spirit, who will impart to us more of God’s living words, the nature of Jesus Christ, thereby sanctifying us and making us saints, for whom Christ is returning:
Matt 11:29 (Jesus) Take My yoke (My Spirit) upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek
and humble in heart (receive My nature) and you will find rest for your souls.
When we were pretending to be Christians we had no power to overcome our human nature nor to do God’s will. But now as we yield to Christ’s yoke, the Holy Spirit causes us to walk in the truth, and causes us to keep God’s words in our hearts and to do them. By these words, made alive to us by the Holy Spirit, we are conformed to Christ’s likeness, which includes being conformed to His death to our sin nature, which is the seat of pride.
Ezek 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes (My words), and you will keep My judgments (My words) and do them.
Phil 3:10 That I may know Him (Christ)...being conformed to His death,
