Am I being like Jesus?

How should I respond to a person who claims to know Jesus but continually talks and acts as if they don’t, yet when questioned immediately has all the biblical answers? I’ve not seen this person walk the talk, but only do a lot of talking. They are not new to faith, but claim a life-long experience of knowing Christ. Why then do they act most of the time as if they don’t? The temptation is to judge, even condemn, yet I do not have that freedom.

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:33–34)

If this person is a child of God, they are protected from condemnation: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) If they are faking it or deceived in some way, then they are already condemned:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:18–21)

Last night, one person in our study group clarified the distinction this way. He said that 1 John clearly states that no matter what we claim, if we don’t love God and others, we are not Christians. Yet 1 John also says that if someone is not “of us” they will not stay with us, so that does not solve my puzzle. I’m reminded of the Liar’s activities:

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:10–11)

Satan is the one who condemns. If I do it, am I playing his game instead of doing what Jesus does in intercession for His people? My goal, even if there is evidence of sin, should be restoration regarding sin (evidence is confession and repentance) and humility rather than pride, faith rather than unbelief, and integrity rather than pretense. Restoration is not my skill set. Instead, I wonder about this from the Lord?

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10–12)

This seems God's answer to my question. This person is irritating me. In hoping for the best and not seeing it, I want a reason for the problem, which is something like Eve being tempted by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God wants me to deal with my problem, not ask Him to show me things only He knows. I now remember the Narnia story where the Lion scarred the back of the boy’s friend and the boy asked why. The Lion (representing Christ) told him, “That is her story” meaning ‘mind your own business and leave her to me.’

PRAY: Lord, You sometimes use unsolved issues to build my faith or to show me what I need to confess. I don’t like being around people who profess faith but their actions and attitude stinks, yet You are intimately acquainted with millions of us who tend to say one thing and do another, try to run our own lives, or fake it instead of being honest. By Your grace, may I grow up and become more like You instead of trying to play God as if I was already there.