Do You Really?

by Chris Simmons

Claims are one thing, reality is often quite another. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus spoke of the fact that many will claim to have made Jesus Christ their Lord but their acts of lawlessness reveal something to the contrary. In terms of things spiritual, there are so many who make impressive claims but the reality proves to be quite another story. We need to make sure that our spiritual claims are really true and valid and that we haven’t deceived ourselves.

Do you really believe? Is your faith real, genuine, and true? Or have you convinced yourself that you believe when the truth is your faith is lacking and incomplete? First, is your faith even your own? Is your faith simply something handed down to you by your family or is it your own because you’ve personally studied and read God’s word and heard the truth proclaimed? We read of some whose faith became their own in John 4:39-42, “And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things that I have done.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’” Second, is your faith worth suffering for? The parents of the young man to whom Jesus restored sight didn’t really believe because of what true faith would have cost them. They understood that they would lose their standing in the local synagogue if they confessed Jesus to be the Christ (John 9:22). We read of many others in John 12:42 who followed their example and really didn’t believe. We only really believe when we’re willing to pay the price of faithfulness. Third, is your faith a faith that compels action? A saving faith and a complete faith is defined by a faith that acts upon what we know to be true and right according to God’s word (James 2:14-26). Faith without the actions that are demanded is shallow, empty, vain, and dead (James 2:17). If we really believe, we must complete our faith by acting upon it (James 2:22). Do you really believe? That is a question not answered by words but through the actions of our lives.

Do you really love? Many a husband and wife have verbally professed their love for each other only to be challenged by their spouse, “do you really love me?” We may claim a love for God but do we really have the type of love He demands? Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” If our love is real, we will keep (heed, submit to, obey) all that He has commanded us (John 14:15). Our love for God is real when we return to God the type of love with which He loved us. John wrote in I John 4:10-12, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” Our love for God is therefore real and genuine when it is defined by actions (“in deed and truth”) and not just words (“with word or with tongue”) (I John 3:18). Finally, we really love when our love is taught and defined by God. Paul prayed in Philippians 1:9-10, “that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.”

Do you really know God? In the book of Romans Paul references those who observe God’s “eternal power and divine nature” in what He has created and thus “know” Him as the Creator but fail to “honor Him as God or give thanks” (Romans 1:20-21). I’d like to suggest that even though it is said that they “knew God,” based on their lack of submission, reverence, and obedience, they really didn’t know God as He expects and demands us to know Him. That conclusion is based on I John 2:3-4 where the inspired apostle writes, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” To claim to know God and yet to fail to honor Him through our reverence, submission, and obedience is to be what John describes as a “liar.” Knowledge of God is to lead to fellowship with Him and that only happens when our lives are consistent with His will. Again, John writes in I John 3:24, “And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

Do you really seek God first? All who wear the name Christian should want to unequivocally answer such a question, yes. But when Jesus declared in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you,” the challenge was much more than answering a question correctly. It was about proving and demonstrating by how we live our lives and how we use the time, blessings, and abilities God gives to us what truly comes first in our lives. Jesus questioned Martha regarding her priorities when she found herself focusing on “so many things” other than learning from the Lord what He had to teach (Luke 10:38-42). In Luke 14:15-24, the three individuals who declined the invitation to the great dinner were not guilty of heinous crimes or moral corruption but simply misplaced priorities. Misplaced priorities that would bring condemnation and keep them from enjoying the blessings God has planned for those who truly seek Him first. Would those three invitees, if asked, have answered that following the Lord is the most important thing? The thing is, their verbal answer doesn’t really matter because their actions spoke for them. Do I really seek God, His kingdom, and His righteousness first? Do my actions belie my claim to my priorities?

Are you really a disciple of Jesus Christ? Many claim to be the Lord’s disciples but few are willing to pay the price. Jesus said in Luke 14:26-28, 33, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? … So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Disciples understand the cost for faithfully and obediently following the Master. Disciples are Christians who are taught and are faithfully obedient to what they’ve been taught by God (Acts 11:26).

Are you really in the faith? Paul wrote in II Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?” It’s up to each one of ourselves to honestly, soberly, and accurately (according to God’s word and not our own estimation) examine ourselves by looking into the mirror of the “perfect law, the law of liberty” (James 1:22-25) and determine (based on what we actually do in our lives) if we are in “the faith.”