Fake repentance is based on someone thinking all they need to do is "say" they want Christ without any desire to be changed by Him. They want to feel safe; they want to use God as a puppet to give them what they want, but they do not want Him.
Matthew 15:7-9 "…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”
You know you have encountered a pretender when you bring Scripture to the discussion, and it makes them angry. Those who love Jesus Christ want to hear what God has to say.
Psalm 1:1-3 "…1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does."
Jeremiah 15:16 "Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts."
Psalm 119:47 "I delight in Your commandments because I love them."
Psalm 40:8 "I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
These are not commands from God to delight in His Word, these are the very essence of the believer who has been transformed by God.
There are those who love to know the Bible so they can impress others, not because they delight in Christ. Many people who are learned in the Bible and even preachers have not been born again. Their desire is to be seen as wise, but they are not committed to Christ; they are not His friends.
Psalm 119:97 "Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation."
James 1:25 "But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does."
Authentically born-again believers are doers of the Word because they love Christ above everything else. Those who only "say" things to impress others are not doers; there is no fruit of the Spirit in them.
Fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5:22-26
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."
