Yes, judge.
How do we know whether someone is really a Christian, when they claim to be?
And is it wrong to even ask that question?
For some, it’s so obvious and unquestionable: of course it’s wrong. Judging someone’s Christianity is the unpardonable sin. It’s universally forbidden (even for, say, the KKK?). Committing that offense will provoke the most vicious, visceral rage. I have seen it.
After all, didn’t Jesus say, “Judge not” (Matthew 7:1)? Case closed!
How dare we judge someone’s relationship with God?
Well, that’s exactly what Peter did in Acts 8.
Verse 13 says Simon of Samaria believed and was baptized. But when he offered the apostles money for the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter told him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
Simon was a false convert. He thought he was a believer, but he really wasn’t. And Peter — the leader of the apostles, the man Jesus commissioned to feed His sheep — called him out on that. He didn’t think, never judge whether someone is really a Christian or not.
Warnings of false converts
False converts are a recurring issue throughout the New Testament. Jesus talked about them in the parable of the soils, in which some people “receive the word with joy” but fall away. He talked about them in His horrifying warning of judgment day, when He will condemn people to hell who performed miracles in His name and will be shocked at their damnation (Matthew 7:21-23).
I wonder how many of them will wish someone had warned them while they could still repent. Peter’s harsh rebuke resulted in Simon praying that he would be forgiven.
Notice that Jesus’ warning of judgment is in the same chapter that begins with “judge not.” Also in that chapter, He said, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine,” and “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” In order to obey those instructions, we must first identify the “dogs” and “swine,” and we must recognize who is false despite claiming to be genuine — a wolf wearing sheep’s clothing looks like a sheep. Jesus said beware of what they are inwardly; that requires some degree of judging.
Twenty-six of the 27 books in the New Testament include warnings of false Christianity. Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that false prophets will come in His name. Jude wrote that false Christians “have crept in unnoticed” — they were inside the church. Paul warned the elders of the church at Ephesus that “savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30). They will be “among you.” They will claim to be Christians.
Scripture is clear on how we are to handle this:
“Do you not judge those who are inside? … Put away from yourselves the evil person” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).
“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Romans 16:17).
“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him” (2 John 10).
Paul’s warning to Ephesus came true, for the Lord commended that church, “you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars” (Revelation 2:2).
How can we heed all these warnings about false believers, and obey these instructions to avoid them, if we’re not even to consider who they are?
How we can know
Now, let me be emphatically clear: Questioning someone’s faith must be done with extreme care, caution and wisdom. It must be done out of love, not malice. The goal must be repentance, not condemnation. It should not be a final judgment, but concern over assurance of salvation. And there should be a mountain of substantial evidence to indict someone’s claims, not a slip-up or error here and there.
The evidence of false faith is a lack of evidence of genuine faith.
When someone comes to saving faith in Christ, God transforms that person. Conversion is death of the old self, and a new birth into a new creation. At that moment, the new believer becomes indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and His work in that person is just beginning.
Conversion begins a process called sanctification, in which the Holy Spirit sanctifies, or makes holy, the believer. Basically, He makes the Christian more like Christ.
This is a gradual process. Because the believer’s sinful nature remains as long as he’s on this earth, he now has a dual nature: the regenerate “inner man” and the old “outer man” (see 2 Corinthians 4:16). These two natures will always be at war with each other (Romans 7:22-23), as the outer man resists the change God is bringing about from the inner man.
But there will be change. God’s work in us is more powerful than the resistance, and we will grow more and more into the person God wants us to be. This growth is so certain and inevitable that it is the evidence of genuine conversion. Therefore, if there is no evidence, there can be no assurance that conversion has taken place.
Evidence to look for
So, what is the evidence that someone has really been born again?
First, know what does not qualify as proof of salvation: mere verbal expression of belief. All false converts do that. James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” Jesus began His aforementioned warning of judgment with, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
What is God’s will? Our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
The body of Scripture points to at least three kinds of evidence of genuine new birth — three ways God sanctifies us:
1. Doctrinal evidence
A genuine Christian must believe certain things, including but not necessarily limited to the Trinitarian God; the deity of Christ; His sinless life, substitutionary atoning death and bodily resurrection; His second coming; the sinfulness of humanity; and salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone. All this is what the Bible teaches.
If someone claims to be Christian but says things like we are gods just as much as Jesus was; or salvation is also found through Mary; or Christianity is about making the world a better place by following Jesus’ example, their belief can and should be challenged. Those are gospel issues, and a wrong gospel leads to damnation (Galatians 1:8-9).
Now, genuine Christians can interpret the Bible differently and get some things wrong. We can disagree on secondary issues, such as whether the miracles of the Bible continue today, or the sequence of events surrounding Jesus’ second coming, and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. It also matters greatly whether our error stems from mere ignorance of what the Bible teaches, or rebellious rejection of it.
But our beliefs must come from submission to the Bible as our first and final governing authority over life and doctrine, recognizing Scripture as the infallible, inerrant, sufficient word of God.
2. Evidence of holiness
It stands to reason that the indwelling Holy Spirit will make us more holy in how we live our lives. Jesus said if we live in relationship with Him, we will bear fruit; if we don’t, we will be cast into fire (John 15:1-6). The fruit of the Holy Spirit is listed in Galatians 5:22-23 — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The essence of sanctification is summarized in Philippians 2:12-13 — “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Our godly works, and our will to do those works, are the fruit of God’s work in us. Titus 2:13 says God makes us “zealous for good works.”
One of the major themes of John’s first epistle is how we can know we are truly in relationship with Christ. Find its multiple instances of the phrase “by this we know,” and see what follows: “if we keep His commandments” (2:3); “whoever keeps His word” (2:5); “love … in deed and in truth” (3:18).
Genuine Christians can struggle with sin — if it is a struggle and not a surrender, that itself is evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, as is dissatisfaction with our own holiness. Setbacks and failures in our walk with God are inevitable. To use a sports expression, sanctification is a marathon, not a sprint. We will never be completely free of sin until we leave our fallen bodies. There will always be need for growth and repentance.
But if we never grow in sanctification, if we don’t see any sign that God is at work in us, if we continue to unrepentantly live just like the unredeemed world, if no one can tell any difference between us and unbelievers (or our old self), that should make us concerned for our salvation.
The opposite of holiness is worldliness. James bluntly tells us that “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (4:4) and “faith without works is dead” (2:20). That doesn’t mean works are the basis for our faith, but that faith will always result in works.
Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). That leads us to the third category of evidence, from which the other two flow:
3. Relational evidence
Do we love God, and how much?
That’s the ultimate question, for Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
It’s not enough to like God, or be fond of God, or give Him some place in our lives; our love for Him must be all-consuming and all-governing. We must give Him the throne of our hearts, the highest place of devotion. He must be the ultimate love of our lives. We must absolutely, unconditionally submit to Him as Lord.
Perhaps the greatest competitor for our love is self. Jesus said we must die to ourselves; is your faith about Him, or about you?
Look how serious Jesus is about this: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). Parents, do you love Jesus more than you love your children?
This is what makes the other evidence possible. When we love Jesus that much, we’ll delight to obey Him and learn from Him. His words will be our greatest joy and satisfaction. We will gladly lay down our lives for Him.
That obedience includes how we love others. One of the most common ways people who claim to know Christ disobey Him is in relationships. We date and marry unbelievers, even though that’s forbidden by His word (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). We have sex before marriage. We defy the overwhelmingly clear Biblical definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. We affirm those who do those things because we think that’s what love is. But it’s not loving God, and therefore it’s not loving them, either.
How to handle it
If someone claims to be a Christian but shows no willingness to grow in these areas, it is not only appropriate but imperative to lovingly question the genuineness of their faith. Their eternity is at stake. They may say, “only God can judge me,” but that is exactly what we should warn them about. It is better to “judge” them now than for God to judge them at the end. Perhaps we will offend them, and maybe we’ll be wrong about them, but “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6).
But perhaps the highest guiding principle on this is to, as Jesus said, take the log out of our own eye first. That, of course, is in the “judge not” passage, which does not teach us to never judge, but to not judge hypocritically.
We are told in Scripture to “examine everything carefully” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) — but that must start with ourselves. “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves,” Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure,” Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:10.
Once we do that, then, Jesus said, “you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
