What About Fake Christians?

WHAT ABOUT FAKE CHRISTIANS?—Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Does it bother you when you see and hear prominent personalities act like God is their best buddy, while they live very ungodly lives? Politicians, athletes, superstar performers—all say, “God bless,” and identifying themselves as Christians, while their speech and actions are quite profane.

More troubling, perhaps, are ordinary people who go to church or claim to be “good Christians,” even putting up a good front, when you know how they are living. It’s troubling.

WHAT DOES JESUS SAYS ABOUT THAT?

He told a parable: Read Matthew 13:24-30.

THE ENEMY HAS A STRATEGY TO PLANT FAKE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH.

That is not his only strategy. In some parts of world, believers are persecuted, resulting in very few fake Christians. In those places, it is more likely that people will fall away because of danger, threats from other religions or evil regimes, or pressure from non-Christian families.

The devil used a strategy of persecution in the early days of the church. Jewish Christians expelled from the synagogue, and gentiles were excluded from trade guilds. They were victims of lies, even characterized as cannibals because they ate the body of Christ in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Some were thrown into the arena, to fight lions, or take on trained gladiators. Many were marginalized by society.

The devil’s strategy of persecution was not very effective! From 100-350 A.D.—35 decades—the church grew at a rate of 40% per decade! Christians had a radical commitment to Jesus Christ; there were few fake Christians, and true Christians lived authentic lives of sacrificial love and obedience.

Gradually, however, Christianity became acceptable in most of the Roman Empire. The emperor Constantine recognized the church as legitimate in 313 A.D., issuing the Edict of Toleration. Soon, almost everyone was “Christian,” and the church spread into Europe and England.

As Christianity spread and the church became more powerful, the Enemy focused on a different strategy—a strategy Jesus talked about:

(Matthew 13:24-25) “Jesus told them a parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.’” Later, he explained: (Matthew 13:38-39) “The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.”

During the Middle Ages (roughly the 5th to the 15th century) secular institutions were in disarray, and the church became politically and economically powerful. In Europe, almost everyone identified as a Christian, because of cultural identity, regional and political decrees, or a desire for economic and social stability. Many did not understand the gospel, as Bibles were unavailable, and church leaders were often incompetent or corrupt.

All of Europe was “Christianized,” but how many were true followers of Jesus Christ? How many were living as true followers should live?

In the United States, there have been times and places where most people identified as Christian. The Enemy was active during that time, as always, but churches were full, and the Christian religion seemed healthy. There were “weeds” in the field, of course, but they were not too obvious.

Now, many people—especially a younger generation of people—look at the church and Christians in general, and they see a church that is not full of the life of Christ. Some may be looking for the wrong things, and not recognizing the profound impact of the gospel on people, despite their faults. Some, however, may be seeing what Jesus said would happen: There are weeds among the wheat.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT THE WEEDS?

Matthew 13:27-30 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

The servants are not to try to uproot the weeds.

The Middle Ages ended about 1500 B.C., and the Protestant Reformation flowered in the 1500’s. One leader of the Reformed movement was John Calvin, who published his two-volume “Institutes of the Christian Religion” in 1536. Calvin was invited to Geneva, not only to teach the Bible, but to clean up the city. He wrote about Geneva, “There is a very large mixture of hypocrites, who have nothing of Christ but the name and outward appearance: of ambitious, self-seeking, envious, evil-speaking men, some also of more impure lives, who are tolerated for a time, either because their guilt cannot be legally established, or because due strictness of discipline is not always observed”