Nov 17
28
True or False Professor?
There is a distinguishing difference between a true child of God and a false professor. The Bible is filled with illustrations of this truth – Mt 7:22-23; Mt 23:27; Mt 25:32; John 14:21; 1John 3:14. This discernible difference is characterized from an inward presence of the indwelling Spirit of God which is produced and manifested by the love of God in the true believer, and is absent in the false professor. The child of God, by his grace, loves God, loves his Son, loves his Gospel, loves the brethren, and loves his work.
Although this inward nature can be imitated outwardly by the false professor for awhile, to some degree, it can never be counterfeited in the heart. What a person loves and gives himself to is, at some point, revealed in his life – For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also Luke 12:34. There are those who profess their allegiance and love to Christ and His Church, yet can never bring themselves to a commitment to the same. They remain their own person, not Christ’s.
The true children of God have a new nature, the Divine nature, which continually causes them to give themselves to the things of God. The truth is that the distinguishing difference is LIFE and DEATH. To those who know him, he is their life. Those who only profess to know him, their life consists of themselves, which is death.
It is of a truth that the true believer’s life revolves around Christ, and that to the false professor Christ revolves around his life. It is comforting to know that God has a people, in this world of falseness and deception, and that they, having the divine nature, live for his glory.
No, they are not perfect in themselves! But they are perfect in him and seek to honor him and his cause by his distinguishing grace. WHICH ONE OF THESE PROFESSORS ARE WE?
Tommy Robbins