Three Kinds of "Christian"

There are three kinds of "Christians."

The first kind of "Christian are those who come to church because they are hoping for help to obtain a better life, cleaning themselves up while acquiring friends, are many in our culture today. These people like to be in the company of those who will be there for them when their life is a mess. They like to have their bills paid, expecting help for themselves from church members, however, they have little help to give to anyone else. Demanding that others pay their bills when they have lived a life of indulgence rather than a life of diligence with their money, these people do not want to work or develop good habits, begging is easier. When we refuse to manage our money in a way that honors God and then expect others to pick up the slack, we are stealing from the body of Christ.

James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."

Ephesians 4:28 "He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need."

1 Thessalonians 4:11 "and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,"

The second kind of "Christian" are those who need to "see and touch" something to have faith in Someone they cannot see with their physical eyes. These people come to find miracles to make them feel protected and even powerful, while at the same time, have little power in their lives to overcome the sin that remains. They make lying excuses for their sin, argue and fight with those who would direct them to a course of true salvation and never seem to grow spiritually, usually they are moving backward after attempting to "play the game" of Christian. They can only hold up pretense for a time, and then the burden of fooling people becomes too great and they give up, reverting to their old lifestyle, because they never had the power of the Holy Spirit. They were pretenders all along. No one has the strength to keep up the sham of their superficial and shallow existence forever.

Matthew 16:4 ""An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away."

3. And, finally, the third kind of Christian, are those who have confessed their sinfulness before God, hate the sin they are in and desire to be cleansed by God. These people have been broken over the evil they have done and are ashamed before a Holy God. They do not come to get something for themselves except to be forgiven. When they have trusted Christ, they sense the release of bondage from all the things they used to love, but now hate. The chains of sin have fallen off, now they see only Christ and what He did for them. These people grow spiritually, becoming stronger in their walk while boldly declaring to others their faith. The more they are reviled, the greater their strength. Nothing moves them from their dedication to Christ.

Psalm 51:17 "17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise"

It is likely that the first two kinds of "Christians" have never been born again. They have selfish ulterior motives for attending a gathering of believers, it is not that they want to worship Christ.

John 9:31 "Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.".

A test that tells a lot, is to confront, in a loving way, the lifestyle of these "in name only" Christians, and watch what emerges. A deceiver will use anger and manipulative language to accuse while playing the victim through the whole encounter.

The true believer when confronted with sin will show deep remorse and shame without argument.

Sadly in the churches today we find many who are of the first two Christian varieties. They prey upon unsuspecting kind and loving people who are easily guilted into things they sense are not right, but are too weak to confront.

We must let the Holy Spirit guide us in our desire to be a giver. Giving is not always good, it can actually be against God's will to give. We can never go wrong when we ask the Lord and wait for His answer before giving.

Another response to the first two kinds of "Christians" is to live the Christian life as we should and continually bring the gospel message to them. To assume that the first two kinds of "Christians" are believers, is to make a grave mistake. We have to remember that by validating them in their rebellion, is to influence weaker believers and deceive the youth.

If we do things Biblically, seeking the Lord in prayer, we may find the first two kinds of "Christians", either leaving the church or becoming born again. Our culture fears "driving someone away" by preaching at them. This is almost funny if it weren't so sad. If someone is driven away by the truth, then God doesn't want them there anyway. They are "leaven", they will infect the rest of the apples in the barrel, if only to weaken their witness by tolerating worldliness and rebellion in the church.

Galatians 5:9 "A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough."

1 Corinthians 5:6 "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?"

If we were to deal Biblically with the first to brands of Christianity in the church, we might find many people leaving, but in return, those who remain, would be the faithful ones, the called out ones. Our society is more into numbers than holiness in our gatherings, causing our churches to be impotent, ineffective and sinful.

We are not called to bring hordes of non-believers into our gatherings, we are called to go out to them and only bring them in when they have responded to the gospel, becoming born again.

One only has to look at the mess the apostate church is in, to know that all the attempts to bring in non-believers has destroyed the holiness of the gatherings to such a degree that few true believers remain in them.

True, sold out blood bought believers in Christ are leaving these sinful and impotent gatherings. They would rather be alone or in a house with two others than participate in the mess of the large organized church.

Remember when we do witness to the non-believer in the world, we have a model of the response that we can expect, in the Bible;

Matthew 13:1-9
"1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea.
2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.
5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.
6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
8 And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear."

Matthew 13:18-23
"18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

Matthew 13:24-30
"24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
26 But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves *said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’
29 But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’

NO where in these scriptures does God say to bring the people to the temple or gatherings of believers. These Scripture represent the believers going out to the world to bring the gospel and bringing into the gathering of believers, those who have trusted Christ.

He does however tell us to preach the truth, those who remain, do not throw out, God will take care of them later. If we preach the truth, strong and boldly, many will leave by themselves, those that remain will have no effect on the others because as they sin, it will be handled in the presence of others.

1 Timothy 5:20 "Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning."

The apostate church protects and coddles the sinner who is a pretender, causing the leaven of sin to grow out of control. Now in the apostate gatherings even the leadership is living willfully and sinfully as well as their congregations.