Apparent Believers, But Maybe Not

ALL – Psalm 39:1-13
ALL – Proverbs 21:30-31
OT – Job 12:1-15:35
NT – 1 Corinthians 15:29-58

Interesting passage for the day: Get some sense and quit your sinning. For to your shame I say it, some of you are not even Christians at all and have never really known God. – 1 Corinthians 15:34, The Living Bible

Thought: First, let’s summarize yesterday’s thoughts. Some heretics are still saved, and even as we approach them to correct their false beliefs we should look at them as brothers for as long as possible.

But there is a limit at some point. Paul may or may not have known which specific people he was talking about (he doesn’t call anyone out by name the way he does in his letters to Timothy). But he says, to translate more literally than the Living Bible, that, “some have no knowledge of God.” The Living Bible, as you can see, interprets this to mean that “some of you are not even Christians at all”.

Do you remember Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares? That’s what could be going on here. Paul could be saying that he actually believes some of the people he is addressing are not believers, even if he’s not sure yet which ones. If so, he has not yet come to the point where he’s recommending expelling any of them from the church, like he did with the immoral brother of 1 Cor. 5. Sometimes when people in the church display a lack of knowledge, we could be dealing with a wheat and tares situation—some of them are believers and some of them are not, and our goal is not to try to sort it all out, but to provide for the believers to keep growing.

If so, part of that provision includes warning people who believe false ideas that they may not know God.

Question: Have you ever urged someone you considered to be a Christian brother or sister to examine whether they actually knew God or not? What made you concerned about the reality of their relationship?

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