Some people pretend to be disciples when they are not. This devotion looks at how we must make a genuine profession to truly know Christ.
Nuggets
- The problem with nominal disciples is, though they claim to be children of God, they do not submit to God’s authority.
- Religious actions, which equals the outward walk, mean nothing if they reject the power of God to make the inward transformation.
- We are to work out our salvation to grow in knowledge as God reveals Himself to us.
We’ve talked about nominal disciples before. Nominal disciples are those boasting they love God without even trying to imitate Him — those who dig on religion and its rituals without having a change in heart.
We’ve also talked about a similar term. A formalist is a person who gives the appearance of being a disciple but, in reality, isn’t.
We are going to look in this devotion at how knowledge is superior to the beliefs of nominal disciples.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
I used Lyth and Burder’s The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ as the foundation of the devotion.
Resource
Not Submitting to God
“Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good” (Ti. 1: 16 NLT)
The problem with nominal disciples is, though they claim to be children of God, they do not submit to God’s authority.
You would think that, once we make a profession of faith, we would be all in. We would be doing everything God expects of us.
But it doesn’t always work that way. For whatever reason, some disciples haven’t made a genuine profession of faith.
That is what Paul was saying here. “Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. …” (Ti. 1: 16 NLT).
Look how Paul described who he was discussing. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled” (Ti. 1: 15 ESV).
Their minds and consciences are full of sin. I read that to mean the unbelieving are the ones who never make the choice to believe God. The defiled are those who say they believe God, but sin still reigns in their lives.
It is interesting that the Homilist called conventional Christians profession and practical atheists. Atheists deny the existence of a God or show contempt for Him.
The Homilist expanded on that. He wrote, “They deny God’s authority in everyday life; ignore the claims He has upon their existence, powers, possessions.”
Resource
What they are saying is their self-interest and opinions are more important than what God commands. They are also saying every man for themselves.
Really, they are being hypocrites.
Taylor looked at some characteristics of hypocrites.
- They are really religious dudes.
- They act like they know what Scriptures say and mean.
- They put on a great show of pitying others.
Resource
Hypocrisy does more harm than good. Have you ever heard of a non-believer thinking they were better than disciples who were inconsistent in their beliefs and actions?
When non-believers see them as true disciples yet see their inconsistencies, they question their need for God.
That isn’t the witness we want.
I know. There will always be hypocrites in the church. And, no. God doesn’t rain lightening down from Heaven to punish them.
God would rather be redeemed.
We don’t want to be hypocrites. We don’t want just an outward profession.
We want to get our confession down to the heart level. All must be consistent — our heart, our words, and our actions.
We can’t have the faith without the obedience.
Not Transforming to be Godly
“They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” (II Tim. 3: 5 NLT)
Religious actions, which equals the outward walk, mean nothing if they reject the power of God to make the inward transformation.
We’ve looked at this verse before when we were talking about being godly. I don’t think we’ve ever looked at it from the flip side.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We can go through the ceremony and tradition of worship, but if we don’t look to our relationships with God, we have nothing. Walking in the Spirit begins with having the Spirit in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit only comes to live in us when we genuinely ask Jesus into our hearts and God into our lives. We can’t have the one without the other.
If we don’t show true godliness in our lives, we do not have true salvation. While we can’t have true righteousness without showing it in the way we live our lives, our hearts must be right in order for the actions to mean anything.
It is all about being conformed to God’s character. “My son [and daughter], give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my way” (Prov. 23: 26 ESV).
Remember, this discussion started with knowing the law. The law tells us what God’s way is.
Jeremiah talked about getting laws to the heart level. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31: 33 ESV).
Do you know of anyone who is very content in being a good person without truly knowing Christ? That is having the actions while rejecting the power.
Why do this? Kollock gave us a heartbreaking reason. He wrote, “At their head must be placed the intentional hypocrite, who knows that he is utterly destitute of love to God and the Redeemer, who has no desire for holiness, but who assumes the mask of religion to cover his sinful purposes.”
Resource
Why do we think we can have godliness without having the relationship with God? It isn’t just about the acts themselves. Church attendance alone does not make us disciples.
It is about the God that we imitate. It is about the confession, prayer, praise, and worship.
I wonder if people get messed up when they hear the word power. They think of it as worldly power.
God’s power is based on the purity of His character. That is what He is calling us to be.
But worldview people want worldly power, so they ignore what God wants to give them. They won’t mortify their sins and deny themselves.
We mentioned the other term — formalist — is also a person who gives the appearance of being a disciple but isn’t. The way I read what Hall was saying is that the formalist may know a little about a lot of things, but doesn’t know the true, full story or gets it to the heart level.
The power only comes from listening to God and obeying Him.
Martin told us point blank what the power is. He wrote, “The power of godliness is true faith in the doctrines which are according to godliness; the power of godliness is worship in spirit and in truth; is doing the will of God from the heart; is love for the godly as godly persons; is joy in God as God; and, I may add, the power of godliness is that external godliness which is the fruit of an internal godliness.”
Resource
So, if the form is the appearance of being a disciple, what constitutes doing it the right way?
- True worship.
- Genuine prayer.
- Withdrawal from sinful worldly pleasures.
- Mortification of sin.
- Crucifying the flesh.
Resource
Glossary
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
To truly know Jesus, we need to repent of our sin – including turning away from them – and live for Jesus.
Not Working Out Our Salvation
“But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: ‘The LORD knows those who are his,’ and ‘All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil’” (II Tim. 2: 19 NLT)
We are to work out our salvation to grow in knowledge as God reveals Himself to us.
There is hope. Our faith is built on the foundation of God’s truth. We know we are His. We know this because God seals us.
Glossary
That is the best knowledge in the world.
But the verse doesn’t stop there. It says we are to work out our salvation.
That is part of our job description. It is what we do when we navigate the Sanctification Road.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #2
Work Out Our Salvation (Philippians 2: 12)
We know God doesn’t reveal everything to us right away. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1: 6 ESV). We have to gain that knowledge as we grow in Him.
The goal of working out our salvation is to gain holiness and spiritual graces. We are to become as God is.
If that isn’t our goal — if we don’t give up sin — Jesus won’t know us. ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Mt. 7: 21-23 ESV).
Making the Connections #1
Hall said something that we have to remember. He wrote, “It is the grace of our graces, it is not properly a distinct grace, but the perfection of them all.”
Resource
We can’t think only being kind to people (or any one of the spiritual graces) is enough of grace to get us into heaven. We’ve got to have all of the spiritual graces because we have to be heading toward perfection.
Making the Connections #2
I saw a meme with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. It said, “No one in hell can say I went to Christ and He rejected me.”
Some nominal disciples may think Jesus did. That isn’t the case.
If we make a confession and don’t fully submit to God, we aren’t really making a profession of faith. We will be rejected when we do that.
That isn’t Jesus rejecting us. That is us rejecting Him.
How Do We Apply This?
Wagstaff told us how to apply this. He wrote, “The law is first for the spirit, then the letter: for the life through the heart.”
Resource
It is easy to read that as we have to obey the spirit of the law first, then the letter of the law. Some would see that as a way to compromise between conflicting laws.
I don’t read it that way. The law is first to show us how we need to heal our spirit. We can only do that by truly believing Jesus is our Savior and confessing God as Sovereign Lord.
Then we have to live out the letter of the law. God does not let us pick and choose which laws and how we will obey them.
We have to obey God’s laws His way. If we don’t— even though we look like we are full of good works (i.e. a good person) — we are a hypocrite.
- Be totally rooted and grounded in the knowledge of Christ.
- Use that knowledge to sanctify us — transform us to be more like Christ.
- Do God’s Will.
- Sincerely ask God for knowledge at the heart level.
- Have our actions follow our spiritual graces.
- Consistently use our spiritual graces to increase them.
- Be humble.
- Watch the company we keep.
- Don’t be hypocrites.
- Be faithful and obedient.
- Be sincere.
- Let the knowledge that God will judge us help us to obey Him.
Resource
Father God. Lord, we want to know You so we can imitate You. We want Your character so that we are navigating the Sanctification Road to perfection. Help us to mortify our sins. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.