I have had a part of this verse quoted to me more times than I can count, "only God knows the heart."
My answer to them was what God said: "You shall know them by their fruit", bad fruit is the opposite of the fruit of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit of God is "love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness and self-control." These are the character qualities of Christ, if someone does not have this fruit they do not belong to God.
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." Matthew 15:15-23 "15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"
Those who quote scripture out of the context of a chapter and out of the context of the rest of the Bible will pressure and manipulate people to avoid doing things God's way. They will use guilt to control others but those who are in Christ are not fooled by these tactics.
In our culture we are pressured to forgive those who are not sorry for their sin and don't even think they have sinned. We are pressured to "just let it go" so that we continue to endure the nastiness of wicked people while the wicked people feel further empowered to continue in their evil ways. The perp feels relief when no one confronts them about their evil heart and even entitled to be whatever way they want to be without accountability.
Because we have the Holy Spirit and we will recognize when the devil is attempting to confuse us with good-sounding words that are opposite of what God says, we will know the truth and that truth will set us free.
The worldly Christian is in bondage to their false beliefs as they are pressured to act like the world to be accepted by the world. When we are free in Christ the pressure from the world has no effect because we are not in bondage to being accepted by the world.
John 15:19
"If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
1 John 2:15
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
When Christ has set us free from the influence of the world we will appear very strange to those who are of the world. They will avoid us, even in church gatherings we will be avoided because we do not think the way most in apostate gatherings think. They are still of the world and we are not brothers and sisters with them.
This is the reason so many godly Christians who are sold out to Christ are leaving the formal churchy gatherings so as not to have the battle and frustration of continually coming against false doctrine and foolish even rotten attitudes.
These gatherings are not accepting of those who want the Bible as their guide. These gatherings want their own version of Christianity that does not match pitch with God's Word.
More of God's principles and commandments are disobeyed within the apostate gatherings than is obeyed. The modern church has little resemblance to the first century church started by Christ.
This is the reason authentic born again believers who love Christ more than anything or anyone else are remaining at home instead of participating in groups that love their entertainment and false psychological doctrines more than they love Christ. They are also more invested in being accepted by these worldly gatherings than they love Christ. In fact, many people I meet from these gatherings have no love of Christ at all, they wince in embarrassment at the mention of His name and never speak His name from their own mouths.
I have heard long-time older missionaries say foolish things like; "we can be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good." There is no way there is any Bible passage that says such a silly thing. As you can see these false doctrines and foolish thinking have been around for several generations, so much so that when we tell the truth most Christians cannot wrap their mind around it because the false doctrine sounds so good, easy, and familiar to them.
It is easier to fit into the apostasy if someone repeats all the false mantras and ignores the Holy Spirit when He warns them.
The more we love Christ the more heavenly-minded we are the greater use we are in His Kingdom.
The devil makes good-sounding phrases resonate with those who love the world more than they love Christ. They are blinded by the "feelings" when they use the phrases while negating God's Word in favor of their good feelings.
Here is what God actually says!!!!!!
Colossians 3:2
"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth."
It is easy to get caught up in devilish mantras when someone does not know the bible or knows the Bible but changes the wording to fit their own desired belief orchestrated by the devil.
If we are to be free from the influence of the world's thinking we must be saturated with the Word of God and taught by the Holy Spirit to keep from falling into doctrinal error and arrogance.
