They Went Out From Us

Yes, and then they will begin to persecute their Christian friends whom they used to like but no longer love.

The very things they appreciated about their godly friends irritate and anger them. This has to mean they never had the values of their Christian friends, they were merely playing a role to stay connected, but there was no real commitment. As soon as they became weary of the standards of their godly friends they begin the personal attacks.

These pretenders must convey to others that their friend was always mean, bad or wrong to justify their new found contempt for them.

We know authentic friendship by the way they stand by us as we grow and mature over time. Pretenders don't grow nor do they change, they remain as they always have been, playing the religious game until they grow weary of the pretense.

1 John 2:19
"19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that [a]it would be shown that they all are not of us."

Karen Puff Rosenkrantz shared this:
Those who refuse to obey or respect God's Word will fall under a powerful delusion. At first they will wink at their sin and justify it. But soon they will actively seek out a message of easy grace. They will invent a grace that is far beyond what God intended. His grace never leads to license—it always leads to repentance. ~ David Wilkerson