How can I know whether you are a Christian or not?

Question

Jesus said (John 13:34-35)"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Some poor guy here asked for a simple scipture reference that he and his girlfriend were trying to remember and a dozen Christians misjudged his motives and judged him and lectured him and most didn't even get the verse he wanted right. This sort of behavior, more than anything, led me to conclude conversion and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a fraud. The compassionate mostly remain so, the hard-hearted and petty mostly remain so. For fifty plus years I've watched "Christians" tear at one another like wild dogs. As a pastor it was nauseating to watch and other pastors were among the worst, backbiting and jockeying for position. Can Jesus justly blame anyone for concluding he was just a man given the way his followers treat each other and have from day he died?

As I expected, it went right over some heads. I'm not a Christian you %@$tards. Like every other non-Christian I'm judging Christianity by you, and some of you fall way short of being average human beings, let alone beacons calling the lost to a perfect and lovng Jesus. I'm not the one claiming a revelation form God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and regeneration, blah, blah. That would be you! You think your scripture is perfect, I'm just throwing it in your face and saying based on you're behavior yor religion doesn't work. Jesus said I'd know you're his by how you love each other. Boy do I. The only people you treat worse than non-Christians is each other, which is fine with me because many of you deserve it. But the kid that got treated to a pile on by some of you self-righteous pharisees, that kid didn't have it coming, and he's one of you. But no one shoots their own wounded like the Jesus people.

Answer 1

Didn't anyone here get them man's point? The reoccuring theme of Jesus's teachings were love and forgiveness. Anyone who doesn't find this glaringly obvious isn't paying attention when they read the Bible. However, these are also the teachings that many if not most "Christians" seem to ignore when inconvenient. In other words, many people are now wearing a Christian label, but haven't changed their behavior in the least. If one declares they have become Christian, yet still don't embrace love and forgiveness and instead use the title of Christian to judge others for personal satisfaction, then it naturally makes one doubt whether these people are being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Basically, your behavior is making a genuine Christian doubt his faith. What do you think Jesus would think about that? He is, after all, the only one who can judge you.

Answer 2

I understand what you are saying, but remember, Jesus has not turned those who say the follow him to act the way they do. That is Satan making himself known! As a Pastor or former Pastor, which ever it is, you must know that the Bible in the New Testament warns that many will lose their faith and will be fooled by Satan. It has already begun. It is not the tribulation hou, but Satan is certainly setting the stage for it.

I agree, there are far to many Christians, or should I say alleged or self proclaimed Christians, who act directly opposite of how they should be acting. They are not looking to harvest and souls or to plant any seeds to glorify God. They are far more interested in glorifying themselves. I have had run in with Christians here, because I make a comment such as "That really wasn't the way you should be responding" or "Would Jesus have responded the way you did". Anyway, I have received hate mail from them. I have also had some who realized it and thanked me. It works both ways.

When the Holy Spirit dwells with a person, you will know them by their fruit. The best I can say is that the Holy Spirit does not dwell within these people, hence, the reason they act as they do. The Holy Spirit is no fraud, human kind call themselves Christians when they are not, there is the fraud.

I hope you helped the young man find the scripture he was looking for. Had I seen his request, I would have helped.

Answer 3

Any person baptized with water in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost, is a Christian.

The teachings of Christianity are preserved and defended by the church, not by looking up words in books.

Answer 4

Gooooooood point! All these people that pretend to be good Christians and in the name of love they are unforgiving spiteful and ferocious and give me thumbs down. ouch. If youre gonna go crazy over religion do it right anyway. As for me i admit im far from perfect and by no means close to God so I got no right to tear at anyone and i know it.

Answer 5

What an absolute load of garbage. Is your faith so easily shaken perhaps, because your looking for Christ in others? Maybe you should just focus on Christ alone. People, despite their beliefs are all sinful creatures and you know it. Get off your high horse and stop judging others!

Answer 6

A two-year-old boy was once staring at a heater, fascinated by its bright orange glow. His father saw him and warned, "Don’t touch that heater, son. It may look pretty, but it’s hot." The little boy believed him, and moved away from the heater. Some time later, after his father had left the room, the boy thought, "I wonder if it really is hot." He then reached out to touch it and see for himself. The second his flesh burned, he stopped believing it was hot; he now knew it was hot! He had moved out of the realm of belief into the realm of experience.

Christians believed in God’s existence before their conversion. However, when they obeyed the Word of God, turned from their sins, and embraced Jesus Christ, they stopped merely believing. The moment they reached out and touched the heater bar of God’s mercy, they moved out of belief into the realm of experience. This experience is so radical, Jesus referred to it as being "born again." The Bible says that those who don’t know God are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1; 4:18). We are born with physical life, but not spiritual life. Picture unbelievers as corpses walking around who, by repenting and placing their faith in Christ, receive His very life. There is a radical difference between a corpse and a living, breathing human, just as there is when sinners pass from spiritual death to life. The apostle Paul said if you are "in Christ," you are a brand new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Those who now have God’s Spirit living in them will love what He loves and desire to do His will; they will have a hunger for His Word, a love for other believers, and a burden for the lost. The Holy Spirit also confirms in their spirit that they are now children of God (Romans 8:16). Those who believe on the name of the Son of God can know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:12,13).

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, "My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:4,5). What Paul was saying was, "I deliberately didn’t talk you into your faith, but I let God’s power transform you." He didn’t reach them through an intellectual assent, but through the realm of personal experience.

Suppose two people—a heater manufacturer and a skin specialist—walked into the room just after that child had burned his hand on the heater. Both assured the boy that he couldn’t possibly have been burned. But all the experts, theories, and arguments in the world will not dissuade that boy, because of his experience. Those who have been transformed by God’s power need never fear scientific or other arguments, because the man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an argument. "For our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance . . ." (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

Answer 7

Only God can tell you.

As judgmental as you are about people you consider judgmental it will probably be hard to hear him.

Answer 8

By their fruits they shall be known the Bible says

Answer 9

I would never say I am something I am not.
and look at my profile...

Answer 10

And Christ also said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."