It must be that there is a bunch of counterfeiting going on these days. I just see a lot of checking going on. It seems that if I hand a cashier a piece of currency larger that a one-dollar bill, they run it through a machine or hold it up to the light to check to see if it is genuine. And I do know that new measures are being taken to make our currency much more difficult to counterfeit.
Christ told many parables about counterfeit or false believers. With all the information that has been given it appears that we must understand that it is a very relevant and important issue. A particular section that is haunting is this that is found in Matthew chapter seven:
Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The thing that I find so threatening about this section of Scripture is that it reveals that we may even delude ourselves in this matter of being a false believer. Since this potential exists and since Christ spoke so much about it and revealed measures to authenticate that which is genuine, it ought to cause us some urgency to do as the apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians to “…examine” ourselves.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Allow me to encourage you in your study of the Scriptures to take this matter seriously and examine those passages that reveal the tests of genuine faith.
