As a former Store Manager for Michael Jordan Golf, I was trained to identify counterfeit bills. While working at Woodfield Mall in Chicago, I came face to face with a shop lifting ring. This group of individuals staged two different distractions in the store seconds a part so that the mastermind could pull off another heist. After talking with the Mall Police, I was educated and prepared for future groups that tried to imitate a regular shopper.
And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it]. 7 For many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist, 2 John 1:6-7.
Light and darkness is a common theme in the Bible. There are 433 instances where the imagery of light appears. One of the simplicities of Jesus’ teaching is how to recognize the genuine from the fake. True followers are identified as the light of the world and salt of the earth in Matthew 5:13-16. Meanwhile, the counterfeit are easily exposed by the darkness of their deeds. One of Jesus’ disciples passes on this concept based upon how you live and walk.
Now just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are hostile to and oppose the Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned, 2 Timothy 3:8.
Actions, deeds and words will eventually reveal if you are a genuine follower of Jesus or merely pretending. The apostle Paul makes an example of two individuals who were part of God’s chosen people, but were just going along with the crowd, waiting to enter the promised land. Not much as changed today as everyone has a reason, justification for why they live the way they do. Nonetheless, until you begin to become imitators of God, don’t be surprised when you start trying to blend in like a chameleon.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 