It can often be challenging to share the gospel with someone who professes to be a believer in The Lord Jesus because I often sense I can error in two ways: first I can error in being overly critical and drive the person away without hearing their whole story or on the other hand I can be too quick to comfort the person and I may be giving comfort to a false convert. Therefore we must be very careful not to condemn a true Christian and at the same time just as careful not to reinforce someone's deception. I believe , according to Scripture, there are two areas that should be examined in a persons profession. However I cannot tell anyone that they are or aren't saved if there profession is in line with Scripture and what I really want to say is that need to teach people to examine themselves (2Cor.13:5). We are not to examine everyone, but the Bible teaches us to teach others to examine themselves because ultimately only that person knows what goes on inside of them. With that said it brings me back to my 2 points of examination: the first is the profession itself and the second is the persons life. The profession is primary because if their profession is not in line with the Bible then the lifestyle doesn't matter. I am looking for two things in their profession: the first is is their profession Christ-centered? or is it self-centered? Salvation is only found in Jesus Christ and those that are trusting Him will be point to Him upfront and often and we ought to be listening for that and if they are not truly trusting Christ then they must rely upon something that they have done or will do. So first is their profession Christ-centered and secondly is their profession self degrading. A man that has been born again and has all his hope in Christ is not afraid to speak bad of himself and actually he sees it as absolutely necessary in order to exalt The Lord Jesus. The man trusting in Christ has forsaken himself and his works and is in total repudiation of self. Therefore anyone who knows his own depravity and has trusted Jesus Christ because he has been regenerated will purpose to order his whole life according to Scripture. So first we are to encourage them to examine their testimony then their life, because if the heart has been changed then the life will changed. When we are saved God's love is put in our hearts and his commands are a joy for Christ's glory
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