For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Dan Rivers
If anyone wants to know about "fake" Christians", please read the parable of the sower in Matt 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. Do read the three accounts as they compliment each other. You also should read the parable of the Tares and the Wheat...
Jesus tells us that ONLY the seed that falls on the GOOD soil WILL produce fruit! The others never will produce any fruit...
Understanding this parable is very important, when we understand it we will be able to understand all the other parables. Jesus said so, Mark 4:13 …
Praise be to the Lord!
tony teoh
Some years ago many of my business friends said this " is this the way you Christians conduct your business. We non Christian don't do that". They were pointing out the unethical practice of these Christians businessmen. I struggled to give them a correct answer. All I could do then was to pray and cry out to God for an answer. Our Good Lord gave me a dream. He said that there is a letter "p" before the word Christian - a big "P" and a small "p". I asked God what was meant by that. God said that the big P is referring to practicing Christians and the small p is referring to professing Christians. When I shared this with my business associates, they accepted the answer and now have a better understanding of what is happening in the "Christian world".
Dan Rivers
Tony, your dream seems to be right on...
Paul and John mention people that "claim" to be believers but they don't live up to it..
Tit 1:16 NIV - They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
1John 1:6 NIV - If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
1Co 5:11 NLT - I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don't even eat with such people.
In the parable of the sower, ONLY the seed that fell on the GOOD soil produces fruit
If a "Christian" behaves like a Christian should, loving others as Jesus loves us...John 13:34, then he deserves the big "P"
Remember the adage, “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck” And If it doesn't then it's not...
Praise God! May God keep blessing you and yours!
Sean Stone
Tony,
I gotta say...that seems a little odd to me considering Jesus says you will know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:16). We can, by understanding what "by their fruit" means determine whether someone is a Christian or not.
There is only a Christian or not a Christian. Even those that your dream would indicate are professing Christians are not really Christians, so for God to say in your dream that they are only professing, little p, Christians goes against what His actual Word says in that they are not ANY KIND OF Christian.
Based on what God's Word says, I'm thinking he would say there are those that are Christians and those that lie about who they are.
God bless.
Danny Hickman
Wow! I sure hope my fruit passes the test that the practicing christians conduct.
I wonder if Peter could have gotten a passing grade. He denied that he even knew Jesus (Lk 22:57). Paul was throwing believers in jail. He was even "consenting to the death" of some (Acts 22:4). Was that their fruit?
ALL of the 11(Judas had defected) ran for cover when Jesus needed them the most. They left Him (Mk 14:50). I bet they were judged harshly by the general public.
Even after He began preaching the gospel to the Jews, Peter was confronted by Paul for his bias against the Gentiles. He ate with them as long as there were no Jews around. When there were Jews present he wouldn't (Gal 2:12).
Yeah, you can tell who is who by their fruit... if you know what fruit really is.
Fruit is not what a tree DOES, it's what the Lord produces from a tree. Jesus is the one who decides if the fruit He is trying to produce in a believer's life is good fruit or not.
I don't know anything about judging fruit in another man's servant (Rom 14:4). It is before his own master that he stands or falls.
Matt 7:19 - Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown in the fire.
Who cuts it down, is it another tree or the husband man?
Judges 9:11 - The fig tree said to them, 'Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over [other] trees?' Read on....
Only the bramble would agree to "judge" the other trees.
Bramble - a rough, prickly shrub. THORNS...
Danny Hickman
Are we to just blindly accept as true, the premise that there are "so many fake Christians"?
Why are these questions ALWAYS (I can be extreme too) asked anonymously? I'd have more respect for the purpose of the loaded question if it at least had a "fake" name with it.
To my fellow christian brethren: do you think this is asked by a friend of the church? Is this a fact-finding question? Is it designed to get Christians squabbling amongst ourselves? One Christian accuses another of being "in name only."
What if someone asked the loaded question, 'Why do African Americans commit most of the crimes in America'?
Now that's a loaded question! Does anyone believe we African Americans would accept that premise and start pumping out bogus reasons to such a bogus question? (I ignore questions like that all the time on an internet site)
Questions like that are designed to foment division. PERIOD!!
There are many many people who really do believe such bogus claims about criminal behavior in the United States. There are many many people who also believe that most people who say they are Christians are not "truly" Christians.
The difference is in the way christians are so quick to accept as truth what almost every other targeted group won't accept.
Asked on line: Why are so many white people racially biased?
No one accepted it as a legitimate question, and rightfully so. The annonymous asker was attacked, and rightfully so.
We have a lot to learn about unity. (read 1 Pet 3:8)