Not all “Christians” are Christians
by Bryan Carlson
What is a Christian? A follower of Christ—one who models and exemplifies Christ. Being a Christian was never meant to be private. It was always meant to be lived in community and proclaimed to the nations. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). In the verses just before, Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer any good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people” (Matthew 5:13).
The Church in America is declining rapidly. Many who attend church services are lukewarm—struggling with sin, idols, broken relationships, anxiety, and apathy. Most people in our local churches are consumers, not giving anything back to the work of the Lord. The decline of Christianity in America wreaks havoc on our society. A million unborn babies were murdered last year in our nation, and only 37% of adults in America say abortion should be illegal all or most of the time (pewresearch.org). According to the CDC, “the United States has just recorded its highest increase in rates of homicide in modern history” (CNN.com). There were over 47,000 suicides in the U.S. in 2021 with over 1.2 M suicide attempts (afsp.org). Anxiety is the norm. Forty percent of adults say they are more anxious than they were last year and over 50% of parents are concerned about the mental state of their children (psychiatry.org).
There are only two groups of people in the world: the believer and the unbeliever; the saved and the lost; the church and the world; sheep and goats; wheat and tares; fruitful and unfruitful; children of God and children of the Devil.
What do true Christians look like?
2 Peter 3:11-13: Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
“According the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person mut be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Marks of a true Christian:
desire for the Word
desire for prayer
desire for fellowship
desire to do good works
desire for holiness/purity
desire to make disciples
love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
love your neighbor as yourself
the Apostle Paul is a perfect example. Once he crossed over from death to life, his entire perspective changed—to live is Christ and to die is gain; take up your cross daily; I have been crucified with Christ; present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
Luke 9:23-26 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Rom 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
1 Pet 1:13-16 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Marks of an imposter:
Matthew 10:32-33: “Therefore, everyone who confesses Me before people, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven.”
2 Peter 2:20-22: For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
Romans 1:18-32: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Hebrews 3:7-19: So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Hebrews 10:23-27: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Proverbs 28:13-14: Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.
Faithful servants?
"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'"
We all believe we are going to hear “well done,” but why? One of the servants buried his talent in the ground instead of investing it and upon the master's return, he says to him: "'You wicked, lazy servant! And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'" (Matthew 25:26-30).
The narrow road:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way in broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way in constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
“And someone said to Him, ‘Lord are there just a few who are being saved?’ And He said to them, ‘Strive to enter the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin standing outside and knocking on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ and He then will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from,’ Then you will begin saying, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets!’ And yet He will say, I do not know where you are from; LEAVE ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS’” (Luke 13: 23-27).
The fruit test:
“So, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’” (Matthew 7:17-23).
Jesus makes it clear in this passage that a Believer will produce good fruit—good works in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8). The following passage is a beautiful description of how faith and works complement each other. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith comes first! This is a complete dependance on the sole and complete work of Christ on our behalf. But after we repent and are saved, we are then expected, as a follower of Jesus, to do good works. They very next verse says: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The good works, the fruit, prove our salvation.
So, what do we do with “believers” who live like unbelievers. Only God knows a person’s heart, but when it comes to knowing how to confront a hypocrite (one who says they believe in Christ but live differently), we have to examine the fruit. I personally would say to treat them as an unbeliever. Non-believers need the Gospel. We cannot expect a non-believer to think or act like believers. They are of their father the Devil, and they live accordingly. The message always to this group is to repent of their sin and to believe the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Making non-believers more moral only leads to a more well-adjusted person in Hell.
It’s Jesus plus nothing. That’s hard for many Americans to grasp—as we are a self-sufficient, hard-working group. But in this case, we can do nothing to work our way to Heaven. All we can do is trust Jesus and believe in Him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
These verses make it very clear that we cannot leave Christ out of Christianity. He is the only way to have a relationship with the Father. If we leave Christ out of Christianity, we do not have Christianity—we only have false religion. Without a personal relationship with Christ, we are on the wrong path and do not have a saving faith.
We see true believers in Christ on a path that is extremely narrow—Christ plus nothing—and Jesus tells us that there are few people on this path. We see the rest of the world on the wide path. I would like to suggest that many of those on this wide path to destruction think they are on the right path—many who would say that they are Christians but need to be confronted with the true Gospel.
