There's this hesitancy, this reluctance today to denounce someone who calls himself or herself a Christian as not one. It's understandable. The thinking is that if someone considers himself or herself a Christian, regardless of what theological branch of that tree they hail from, then they are one, and who is able to say otherwise? Except the authors of the New Testament didn't play that game, not when it came to how a person acted and lived their lives. They didn't play that game, and neither did those that followed them.
The Apostle John himself is explicit in his language in his first letter, "If we should say that we hold communion with Him and should operate within the darkness, we are lying and not doing the truth; but if we should operate in the light like He is in the light, we hold communion with one another and the blood of Yeshua His Son cleanses us from every error. If we should say that we don't have the error, we are leading ourselves astray and the truth is not within us. If we should agree about our errors, He is trusted and right to drop our errors for us and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we should say that we haven't erred, we make Him a liar and His Logos isn't within us." And also, "The one claiming to make his home within Him is himself obligated to operate in the same way just like that One operated."
They did not and would not have beaten around the bush. If you claim to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ and follower of the Way, and do not live as He taught or operate (walk) as He operated (walked) then you are a liar, regardless of what you say you believe, and they would have called you out on it. If the way you live your life is not marked by love first and foremost, forgiveness, compassion, mercy, patience, self-control, non-judgment, and even just the basics of what Jesus clearly taught, then you are not a Christian, no matter what church you attend, no matter how much you give in tithe, no matter what rules you otherwise keep.
The earliest Christians, the followers of the Way, would have approached you and called you on your behavior and sought to guide you back onto the Way, gently or not so gently depending on who you were and how egregious it was. They would have approached you privately at least twice before calling you out in public, unless you were a member of church leadership. Then they would have called you out openly and immediately in front of everyone as Paul (and Jesus for that matter) did with Peter. They would not have hidden a church leader's offenses. They would not have covered it up to prevent embarrassment or prevent financial loss. They would have dealt with the person's going astray immediately to guide them back, or if they refused and continued in their own malfunctioning flesh, to remove them from the community until they came to their senses.
If you don't care to actually follow Jesus Christ, at the very least, be honest about it. Don't claim His name while riding roughshod over the things He clearly taught. Doing so won't help you at all, and will likely put you into a worse position than if you were just honest about it. Don't claim to be a disciple if you're not going to follow the discipline. You just make yourself a liar, and no one is fooled except you.
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