Pretenders are all around us!

We are living in a time when many people think all they have to do is say something and that makes it so. It is not important to them that they actually believe in their heart, they are only saying words to impress others or to be accepted by them.

This is why so many people claim to be Christians but have no real witness in the world, not even the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

When words are only evident absent from the fruit then we have no reason to believe the conversion was authentic.

And, notice that many of these pretenders are embarrassed to speak of Christ to others, even ashamed when someone else mentions the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, most of the people I know who say they are Christians and attend a gathering, never allow the name of Jesus Christ to roll off their tongues.

Words are nothing, they only have power when the actions match the words and even then words and actions can be manipulations. An attitude of humility and loving-kindness without praise for it is stronger evidence that someone has been changed by Christ into a new creation. The fruit of the Spirit is a character of love through Christ. Born-again believers can discern this Spiritual quality and will feel a connection quickly to those who possess this fruit.

Every born-again believer has all of this fruit. Those who are pretenders often have a false love and some false fruit but it is always exposed when they are confronted with their lack of it and they rage or exact revenge on those who are not fooled by their counterfeit expressions of the fruit.

Since the fruit of the pretender is expressed in their fleshly attempts at spirituality they cannot keep up the pretense when they are exposed for what they are, they rage, they accuse and they do not express sincere regret at their sinful attitudes.

Those who are believers authentically will act saddened and ashamed when confronted with a sinful attitude or action. We almost never see this in our cultural Christianity today.

Believers hate being rude or mean, they hate harming another human being, the very reason we rarely see them having to confess, they just do not do the things that pretenders do as a lifestyle. When they have fallen they are sorry and will quickly confess to restore a relationship.

Born-again believers do not have anger lingering just below the surface ready to unleash. Their underlying mentality is one of calmness, kindness and peacefulness. In other words they live by the fruit of Christ's Spirit desiring to walk as He walked.

Let's review the fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

We need not follow rules because we are the very nature of our Savior Who lives in us. Rules are for lawbreakers not those who love the Law.

Works Based Salvation is of the Devil

Once again we are running into those who think they are keeping their own salvation by their fleshly works. Here is my answer to this problem of works-based salvation.

Christ does not jump in and out of His children. Since their salvation is not based on their deeds but on His blood, He disciplines them rather than throws them away.

Hebrews 12:6 "or whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”"

You cannot keep your salvation by your good acts. Only Christ is good, there is nothing in us that is good enough.

The problem comes from believing people have walked away from God after being changed into a new creation by Him, this is impossible. Those who walk away were never born again.

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 will enter. 22 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 [a]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

When Christ changes us into a new creation it is His work not ours. It is permanent because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance.

Ephesians 1:13-14

"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

We do not change ourselves for salvation and we do not keep ourselves for salvation, it's all Christ.

Ephesians 2:10

"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Ephesians 2:8-10 "…8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.…"

It is a lie that one can lose their salvation, if they could then it is by their own works they are saving themselves.

Let Them Mock God Will Deal with Them.

Next time a young person mocks you to cause a negative reaction that dishonors God, remember what God thinks of their actions. God sees it and feels no differently now than He did at the time of Elijah.

2 Kings 2:23-25

"23 Now he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the road, some young boys came out from the city and ridiculed him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two of the boys."

Notice how many of these young men in Elijah's day, who were coming against Elijah? There must have been a lot because the bears tore up 42 of them.

God does not do things exactly the same way He did in Elijah's time but eventually, those who do not repent from their mocking will see the wrath of God on them.

God still hates sin, He still hates disrespect to the elderly and He still punishes those who harm His children. Those who love Christ will be mocked at times but they will not be crushed by the ridicule.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

"8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

No one can harm our soul or the Spirit of Christ Who lives in us. If they mock us they mock Christ. If they beat our body they answer to Christ. If they kill us they send us home, the place we love to be.

Our bodies are only a shell we live in, when we depart this life our body rots but our soul is complete and rescued from this body of death into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Romans 7:24 "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Those who mock and demean us only strengthen our resolve. Those who kill us only send us to where we want to be, in the arms of our Savior and with all the other believers who went before us.

Hallelujah, mockers, liars, and murderers cannot harm us, they can only harm an earthen vessel that rots in the grave without the soul or the Spirit. Our bodies are not us, they are a shell that holds our soul and the Spirit of God.

May our witness to the very end be one of confidence in the Lord, and disregard for what this world does to us. Hallelujah!!!