Disclaimer: I am not saying that if you do any of these things that you are not Christian. Only you and God know your heart and it would be sinful of me to say that I categorically believe that you are lost (outside of an outright denial of the central tenants of the faith.) That being said, the symptom of salvation is works (notice that I did not say that the result of works is salvation) and submission to the will of God. I hope that this list helps you self diagnose falling off the path and hopefully help you put your faith in Jesus rather than in men or yourself.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. – James 2:18
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”– Matthew 12:50
8) The way you live looks exactly like the way the world lives – We are supposed to love people and want to take care of them. We are supposed to sacrifice in order to help the less fortunate. We are supposed to consider others before ourselves. The sad fact is that more than 90% of supposed Christians don’t live this and it is heartbreaking. They scream about entitlement of the poor and of kicking immigrants out of the country. Their hearts do not break for the poor and the destitute. They don’t sacrificially give to those who are in need. They don’t spend their time spreading the gospel.
If you talk about how much you love Jesus on Sunday but live an unrepentant sinful life where you are not convicted of your sins but revel in them, you really need to consider if you are regenerate. Believing in God is not enough for salvation and it is not enough to be washed clean of your sins. Remember that even demons believe in Jesus, but only through faith AND repentance can we be saved by the blood of Christ. This isn’t saying a few words and being baptized. This is a true honest to goodness rebirth. If you live like the world and use others like the world, you might just be of the world.
7) You are more concerned with politics than you are with the Church – I believe that this will hit many of you in the breadbasket and it is intended. We are ultimately citizens of the Kingdom of heaven but while we are on this planet we are to submit ourselves to worldly leaders. Remember that when Paul wrote Romans Christians were literally being burned at the stake. We are supposed to submit to the most cruel of leaders because God in his sovereignty has placed those people in power.
This does not mean that we are supposed to give up our morals or be forced to go against our conscious, but we are not to place our faith in men (especially in politicians). The rise of nationalism among conservative evangelicals has been a disturbing trend. There are so many supposed Christians who say they have faith in God’s sovereignty but apparently they don’t trust Him enough when things don’t go their way. They believe that a person is what is needed to save this country. This country and the world as a whole is not our home. A Christian should know that.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. – Romans 13:1
6) You submit to the god you feel rather than the God that has been revealed – The god you want and the God that exists is not the same for nonbelievers. God is love, but God is also judgment and wrath. Our God works for our own good, but He is also a God that destroys. If you want to know the true will of God, read the WHOLE bible and not just pick and choose the verses you like. If you don’t love the God that has been revealed in scripture then you need to evaluate whether your faith is in God or in your own version of god.
5) You rely on your feelings rather than in revealed truth – The Holy Spirit helps with understanding based on wise teaching and scripture. He does not work through feelings. I will say it again. THE SPIRIT DOES NOT WORK THROUGH FEELINGS. There is a heresy that is spreading through out American Christianity that the Spirit reveals certain truths to random people that goes against scripture and against 2000 years of biblical teaching (as if the Spirit was silent throughout that entire time). These people say that they feel the Holy Spirit talking to them. God talks to us, but it is through our ability to believe and to love God (against our base human nature). Feelings should always be backed up with scripture to make sure that we aren’t being misled by forces that want us off the right path.
4) You can’t believe in miracles – The definition of faith is a belief in something that you can’t prove. There are so many people who want to be Christian but can’t reconcile a God that is not only able to create the universe by speaking it into existence but that He is also actively engaged in the world with miracles. This is the definition of unbelief. In short, if you can’t read the Apostles Creed and believe it, you are not a Christian, you are simply saying you are one.
I am not saying that you can’t believe in science or that God doesn’t use the natural world to create things, but when you start saying that every miracle in the bible has to have a “logical” explanation, you go from believing to accommodating.
3) You focus on other people’s sins rather than your own – This should be another breadbasket punch for many of you. God tells us to wage war on OUR OWN sins rather than that of unbelievers. We as a Church must fight against injustice and to protect the innocent, but we are never to try to convict nonbelievers of their sins. If you scream at gay people and feel no conviction over your own sins then you are not a regenerate Christian. We all sin, but the difference between us and the rest of the world is that we know how wretched we are. There is a reason why Christ loathed the self-righteous.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. – Romans 8:13
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? – 1 Corinthians 5:12
2) You love what God gives you rather than love God Himself – It is easy to love the gifts of God. The world we live in, as broken and as horrible as it can be at times, is still amazing. We live in a common grace world and God has given us (especially in this country) much that we can be grateful for. The danger comes when you believe that God owes you something. There are many who believe that worshiping God will result in getting more stuff. They love the fellowship of Christians and the feeling of belonging to something (social club Christians). A mark of a true Christian is one that loves God Himself way more than the gifts He has given us. A true Christian understands that what has been given can be taken away, but that the love of God and the gift of salvation are so much more important than the temporal. We believe that our community is not just a social club but that we are literally going to spend eternity together. If you are looking for your best life now, you will get it now, because your next life will be torment.
1) Do non-believers like your version of Christianity – Christians are supposed to look weird to nonbelievers. Frankly, the bible says that the world will hate us. If you feel comfortable in a church that throws out scripture and is celebrated by the rest of the world for being “progressive”, I would challenge you to consider whom you have submitted to. Is it the real Jesus Christ that condemned sin/told people to sin no more, the real Jesus that told people that He is the only way to the Father, the real Jesus that flipped over tables in the Temple, and the real Jesus that will come to judge the living and the dead? Or maybe you have only submitted to a fluffy bunny Jesus that makes you feel good and makes nonbelievers like you more. Guess what? The idea of the fake Jesus might make you more comfortable, but only the real Jesus saves.
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. – John 15:19
I hope this helps!
