Lots of people who claim to call upon the name of the Lord have false motives, to be accepted by others or to pretend they love God when they only want to appear so.
Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “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. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
We must read all scripture in the context of the rest of the Bible. Words do not mean very much unless they are backed up by a lifestyle change. But not a change that we do, it is the change that Christ does in us when He sees we are sincere in our repentance and desire to be changed by Him.
Then He makes us into a new creation. God will not make into a new creation anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. He will not change anyone who is pretending with selfish motives and only "says" things to be accepted.
Our confession of sinfulness must be according to a "contrite" heart, meaning a heart that has been crushed by the knowledge of just how sinful we are and how much we have hurt the heart of God.
God said "you shall know them by their fruit", which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is "love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, self-control and longsuffering."
If someone claims to be a Christian but nothing has changed in their life, they still live rebelliously against God's principles and the fruit is missing, then that person was never born-again, as we see in Matthew 7:21-23.
When a person rages at us for pointing out a sin in their life that is harming others, then that person is not born-again. At the very least the person confronted should feel ashamed and desire to clear things up if there has been a misunderstanding. Those who desire to confess their sinfulness to be cleansed by God of that sin will act humble and saddened that they have harmed someone else and especially that they have been disrespectful of God and others.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
It is possible that our challenge to a brother or sister who is sinning will be met with resistance, but eventually, if they are saved they will be contrite (crushed) and want to make things right.
When appearances are first and foremost in someone's life far more than obedience to God, we have met a pretender. Authentically born-again believers hate it when they sin, they do not rest until they fix what was wrong and openly confess sin. Their heart is more concerned about hurting God and our witness as believers than they are about their own reputation as a good person.
If you are born-again do not ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He will tell us if we have been falsely accused or if we are guilty of something. We need not wallow in self denigration, we can dismiss a false accusation or confess to be cleansed if we were guilty. The longer a person covers up their own sin and willfully ignores the warnings of others the more hardened their heart becomes.
God will go silent for the believer who hardens their heart, and will not hear any cries from the unbeliever who will not confess their sinfulness to be born-again.
If anyone hardens their heart and refuses to submit to God and His other children, God will further harden it to the point they cannot unharden it anymore. This is a very scary place to be for anyone.
Hebrews 3:7-9 "7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works."
Hebrews 3:12-13
"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God…'"
The last verse here is warning "Christians" to see if they are really in the faith, those who are not are the pretenders who will depart from the faith having lost their strength to carry on in it because God never changed them into a new creation. They were attempting to do their walk in the flesh because of their unbelief in Christ.
So many people live by "their own words" while negating and ignoring the Words of God. They are stubborn and rebellious determined to do as they please rather than submit to God.
Matthew 4:17
"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
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