Acting Christlike or Becoming Christlike, these are Two Different Things

When a person is working hard to be the person they know they should be will fail miserably because they are pridefully trying to make themselves into the right kind of person.

When we pray for Christ to change our hearts into what it should be then they will be changed by Him and all his actions and attitudes will be authentic.

We see a lot of fake love based on personal desires and actions that glorify self and not God.

Those who work hard in their own flesh to be a good person will also be the person who will be intensely angry at those who see through their pretense.

Rather than repenting to be changed by Christ, many are learning the ways of God to do their changing in their own flesh but it is not real and does not last because it is fleshly without power and without authenticity.

God does not bless the phony pretense of those who think they can change themselves.

I have heard people say the best way to change ourselves is to force ourselves to do something over and over again until it becomes a habit. This does not work because it is not God changing their hearts it is only them changing their actions without a heart change.

One of the reasons we see so many old people who used to be friendly becoming rude in their old age is because they have lived their life working to impress others rather than seeking Christ for a heart change.

This is the problem with many churchgoers, they are attending gatherings to impress others that they are good people but no heart change has occurred because they are doing "religion" rather than having a relationship with Christ.

Proud of how good they think they are they elevate themselves above others, boast about themselves regularly and become easily offended when someone points out their sham.

They will work against the truth if it exposes their sinful heart. They will rage against anyone who uses the Bible to bring God's word to bear on any matter. The anger and the rage are attempts to discredit the truth teller intimidating them into thinking they did something wrong by exposing the hatred of the one who wants to be a god unto themselves.

Avoid such people they will attempt to ruin your walk with Christ and blame you falsely in order to trigger you into fleshly responses.

If they can get you to respond our of frustration they count themselves as having proved you were wrong and they don't have to listen to the truth.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, [a]haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [b]godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Notice in this passage in 2 Timothy we see that these people will have a form of religion but deny God in their lifestyle, their attitudes and their actions.

Let us be people who search the word of God to obey and to learn the heart of God, not just read to have knowledge to impress others but to actually become like Christ.

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Rulishness or Authentic Godliness

Children look for rules to be able to stay our of trouble.

Mature adults look for understanding and deeper relationships with God and others.

Most "religious" people are on the level of children in their understanding of God and His Word. They look for the rules to be able to feel safe and to appear superior to others.

Mature believers look for the principles of God to learn His heart and function on the level of love and understanding.

The more mature believer wants to carry out the Spirit of the principles and laws that function with compassion and kindness.

"Religious" people do not attempt to understand others, they merely expect the rules an exact revenge or punishment when those rules are violated even in the slightest.

Rulishness is designed to control others while mature believers attempt to understand to be able to help. Never anywhere in the Bible do we see a passage that says we are to control others or intimidate them into submission.

Those who use rules to control others don't care about the person they wish to dominate, all they care about is making them a puppet of them.

Matthew 23:15 (ESV)

"15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

The goal of the "religious" people is to shape others into their own idea of righteousness, no understanding or love is necessary.

Those who are authentic believers love others and are more concerned about their well-being than the rules. They seek to help through instruction and empathy. The goal of the authentic believer is to restore the broken person to full health. The goal of the dominant rulish person is to praise themselves if they can force another person to think the way they think. They have no compassion or tolerance of difference in order to learn another person's heart or even to learn themselves, they cannot be taught because they are stubborn and self-righteous. These people ruin relationships every where they go and never become close to anyone, everything they do is based on superficial appearances.

Let's not be people who focus on rules rather lest be people who care deeply for the well-being of others that they might be restoed.

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