3 Red Flags that Someone May Not Be a True Christian

You may naturually assume that everyone who tells you they’re a Christian, is one. And they may genuinely believe they are, but should you just take their word for it? Yes, unless there are indications that you shouldn’t. The final judgement of whether someone is or isn’t is, of course, God’s. I often think that when we get to Heaven we will find alot of people who are there that we didn’t expect to be there. However, we will also find alot of people not there, whom we expected to be there! The latter option is far more scary!

In talking to people over the years, I’ve come across three repeating phrases or patterns that place a question mark for me over the state of their salvation.

So following are 3 red flags that someone may not be a true Christian. In my experience these factors stand out, since the Bible believers I know never say these, and so it makes those who do, send off some concerns in my heart.

They Use the Word Religion/Religious

Whenever I hear someone say “I’m religious,” or “Christianity is my religion,” etc. I can almost audibly hear sirens going off in my head.

The word ‘religion’ appears only five times in Scripture, and four of those times refer to Judaism (not in a very good light). The other time is:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

This verse, in context, is about the hearing and doing of God’s Word, which one is only actually able to do, by God’s equipping power in those who have been saved.

So, if you hear someone talking about themselves as being religious, it probably means that they go to church, or that they think they’re a ‘good person,’ but rarely does it point to an authentic, dynamic, breathing faith in the Living God. It’s not a word in the vocabulary of any true Christian that I know, or have ever known in my three decades since coming to know God.

They Feel Like Being a Christian is Work

I recently wrote a post titled, The Simplest Hack to Mature in Your Faith, which stated that as believers, we need to feed ourselves, and how to do that. Those who have been saved by God and desire to grow their relationship with their Creator, are drawn by His Holy Spirit to do just that. They have a God-given hunger for His Word; to read it, to study it, to memorise it, to live it. They naturally turn to their Heavenly Father in prayer with their burdens, struggles, and temptations, knowing that they can do nothing to overcome these apart from Him. They have a driving, deep, and desperate yearning to walk with God! All this is not worked up by their own flesh or efforts:

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13

On the other hand, consider it a red flag when someone says that being a Christian is ‘just too hard.’ They usually refer to this in context of the Spiritual Disciplines such as Bible reading, praying, studying God’s Word, or even regularly fellowshipping with other believers.

Now, we are not saved by these, nor are we better in God’s sight because we do these. But as true Christians, the inner God given drive, divinely inspired desire, and consequent discomfort of not “disciplining ourselves unto godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7) compel us to partake in and grow through these means.

To the unsaved, these just feel like work. Hard work. Pointless work. Extra work. And to be fair, if one is not born again, these are hard! The Spirit of God is not living within such a person to grant them that insatiable hunger and unquenchable thirst for the things of the Lord.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew 5:6

So, it’s a waving red flag when a precious soul thinks of feeding themselves spiritually more as a grind, rather than a means to godliness.

They’re Not Sure They Are a Christian

Before I get into this point, I will preface it by saying that we all have doubts at times. There isn’t a believer who doesn’t struggle with some doubt at some point. I love this quote:

When the New Testament talks about doubt, whether you’re talking about the gospels or the epistles, it primarily focuses on believers. That’s very important. It’s as if you have to believe something before you can doubt it; you have to be committed to it before you begin to question it. So doubt is held up as the unique problem of the believer.

John macarthur

What I’m referring to is when you ask someone “Is your husband a believer?” And she gets this deer in the headlights gaze and responds, “I’m not sure.” Or if you have a friend who perpetually wonders whether she’s truly saved or not. From my experience with many of these scenarios, their weak fruit, lack of focus, and feeble faith, point to the danger that they may not genuinely know God and be in a saving relationship with him.

I have a friend who often says that no one knows for sure whether anyone else is saved or not, but a saved person knows for sure that they are saved! So yes, short periods of doubt may occur in the life of a believer, but to perpetually doubt your own salvation (probably because you’re comparing yourself to genuine Jesus-lovers and not measuring up to their passion, purity, and purpose) is definitely a red flag.

I will say, though, that there are some out there who are 100% confident that they are true believers, yet they swear like a sailor, live like the world, and sin to their hearts content! It goes without saying that these people have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. Their fruit of lawlessness gives them away. The Bible is very strong in its warning that we are not to associate with anyone in this camp:

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

1 Corinthians 5:11

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In many ways the mantra of our day is “Don’t judge.” And we shouldn’t judge – – – those outside the Church! But in the very next breath after Paul plainly tells us to have nothing to do with those who call themselves believers, but clearly aren’t, he says:

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (emphasis mine)

1 Corinthians 5:12

I urge you to look out for these three red flags as you meet and interact with those within Christian circles. And then pray for and tactfully evangelise the ones who are in danger of finding themselves in an eternity opposite to the one they are expecting.