Dealing With False Claims

Transcript

GR 673
6/17/1984
Dealing With False Claims
Matthew 7:21-23 Gil Rugh

In the closing verses of Matthew 7, Jesus draws a sharp contrast between those who are going to be part of His kingdom and those who will not, specifically warning about the danger of not believing in Christ and of missing the way to eternal life. The warning in verses 13 and 14 indicates that many are on the broad way going to destruction, but there are few who find the narrow gate and eternal life. In verse 15 He warns about the danger of following false prophets. Verses 16 through 20 show how to distinguish a genuine prophet from a false prophet. Very simply Jesus says you will know them by their fruits. He describes them as wolves in sheep’s clothing. You must examine them very closely, because the better the counterfeit, the more carefully it must be examined before it is possible to determine that it is counterfeit. Jesus is saying that the character of the teachers’ lives and the doctrines they hold reveal whether they belong to God or not. This theme continues in this study as Jesus shows just how dangerous false prophets can be.
In a discussion of false prophets, the question always comes up about whether false prophets know they are false. The startling thing that Jesus is going to emphasize in this study is that these prophets are totally self-deceived. Many prophets who present themselves as genuine are not going to realize that they are false until they stand before Jesus Christ and are sentenced to hell. That accounts for why so many of them can be so convincing in their teaching. They really believe they are God’s spokesmen on their way to heaven, but they will find out when they come to the judgment seat of Christ that they do not belong to Him at all. They are destined for hell.
The contrast in verses 21-23 is between those who say and those who do. The issue is doing, as it was in verse 20. The true children of God are those who are doing the will of God. Jesus said in verse 21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” The subject here, as it has been in the entire Sermon on the Mount, is entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus had preached earlier, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus Christ as Messiah will establish a kingdom on earth over which He will rule and reign. The Sermon on the Mount is a description of a believer’s character. A believer’s character will manifest the character of God consistently through all dispensations or ages of time.

It is important to focus on two phrases in verse 21 in order to see the contrast: “Not everyone who says . . . but he who does.” There will be many who will say the right thing. But only those who both say and do the right thing are going into the kingdom of heaven.
This immediately gives a glimpse of how deceitful false prophets are. Verse 21 indicates that they will address Him as, “Lord, Lord.” Some individuals who will be condemned to hell have actually acknowledged Christ as Lord. Acknowledging His lordship is necessary for salvation. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” It is only through the ministry of the Spirit of God that a person can understand that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in Him. The false prophets that Jesus is describing acknowledge His lordship, but they do not understand it or submit themselves to it.
It is not enough to verbally say, “Yes, Jesus is Lord.” For one to acknowledge Christ’s lordship is a crucial indicator of the genuineness of his profession. However, it is not possible to determine if a person is a believer simply because a person says, “I believe Jesus Christ is Lord,” or “I am doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Many who call Jesus Christ “Lord” will stand before Him in judgment and be sentenced to hell.
Verbally acknowledging the lordship of Jesus Christ without submitting to Him in one’s heart is not a new subject. Such an approach can be seen even in the Old Testament prophets. Malachi wrote in the last book of the Old Testament, “‘A son honors his father and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name” (Malachi 1:6). They honored Him with their lips, they called Him Father and Master, but they did not submit themselves to Him. That is the point Jesus is making in Matthew 7:21. Many will say to Him, “Lord, Lord,” but He will only recognize those who do His will.
If you have truly understood and recognized Christ as Lord and submitted yourself to Him, then you will do His will. If you fail to do His will, then calling Him “Lord” means nothing. Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” What is the significance of “calling Him ‘Lord’ and not doing what He tells you”? The Lord is the Sovereign, the Master, the Ruler. To call Him “Lord” and not do what He says is a contradiction. It is an indication that you do not recognize Him as Lord at all. You are simply repeating empty phrases. That is why Jesus says in Matthew 7, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 21).
You cannot be saved if you do not recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, but you are not saved simply by speaking those words. This verse is a good warning that there will be those who talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and say that He is the Lord when they are not truly God’s children. Throughout this passage, it will become more difficult to distinguish the false prophets from those who are true.
Before looking at the details of verse 22, consider the framework of time which is referred to in the expression “on that day.” This expression comes from the Old Testament and refers to the days of the Messiah. Jesus is addressing Jews in this setting who will immediately identify the time to which Jesus is referring as the messianic time.
This expression is used a number of times in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 2, the context is the coming messianic kingdom. Verse 11 says, “The proud look of man will be abased, and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” In the day when the Messiah comes to rule and reign, God alone will be exalted. The same phrase is repeated in verse 17: “And the pride of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be abased, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”
The context again in Isaiah 4 is the coming of the Messiah to rule and reign. Verse 2 says, “In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.” The expression is used again in Isaiah 10:20: “Now it will come about in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” This is referring to the salvation of Israel and the days of the Messiah.
The Jews to whom Jesus was speaking would have been well aware of the meaning of this phrase from the Old Testament. When Jesus says in Matthew 7:22 “Many will say to Me on that day,” the Jews would immediately know that He was talking about the days of the Messiah, the time when the Messiah will come to earth. The first thing He will do is set up the judgments that are laid out in some detail in the Old Testament. He will sift out from the earth the believers who will go into His kingdom, while the unbelievers will be executed. He is referring to the judgment that will precede the setting up of His earthly kingdom.
The next event in Bible prophecy is the Rapture of the Church when all true believers will be bodily removed from the earth into the presence of God. Then there will be a seven-year Tribulation on the earth. During that time many people will believe in Christ, and many will also die. At the end of the seven years, Christ will bodily return to the earth to set up His earthly kingdom. In preparation for setting up that earthly kingdom, He will set up a throne of judgment. That is the day Jesus is referring to in this passage when people will be drawn before Him to determine who will go into His kingdom and who will not. The principle of judgment is the same for any of the judgments referred to over which Christ will rule.
Jesus has instructed that the Father has given all judgment into His hands. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Christ is the Judge of all humanity, and He will judge every single human being born into the human race. The particular judgment Christ is referring to in Matthew 7:22 is described in Matthew 25:31-32: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25 is given to a description of judgment starting with the parable of the ten virgins, proceeding to the parable of the talents and also the parable of the sheep and goats. These all refer to judgments which will take place when Christ returns to earth to set up His kingdom. The parable of the sheep and the goats refers to the judgment of the Gentiles. The parable of the ten virgins as well as the parable of the talents focuses on the nation Israel. This chapter portrays the tremendous authority and position Christ claims for Himself in that judgment.
“On that day”(Matthew 7:22), the day of the Messiah’s coming, many will say to Him, “Lord, Lord.” In this passage Jesus claims to be the sovereign Judge of all mankind. He is the One who will exercise judgment and determine the eternal destiny of humanity. Jesus makes the tremendous claim of being the Son of God, the Messiah, the sovereign God Himself.
As we saw in verse 21, many counterfeits will claim to recognize Christ as Lord. But that is not all. Verse 22 indicates that they will claim that they did the will of God: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’” They will claim to have prophesied, cast out demons and done miracles all in the name of Christ. Those individuals may have put their hands on a person’s head saying, “In the name of Jesus I command the demon to come out,” or “In the name of Jesus I command you to be healed.” They did it in the name of Jesus. But note the conclusion in verse 23: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me you who practice lawlessness’”. These people standing before Christ will have come through their entire lives and will stand before God with eternity in the balance. They will have been totally deceived. They thought right up to that point that they were representing God; they assumed they were servants of His on their way to heaven, but they have been totally self-deceived.
Do such false teachers today know that they are not genuine? In a vast number of cases, I do not believe they have any idea that they are not genuine. They really believe that they are the servants of God who have been called by Him and are doing His work. They even tell you that they are doing the will of God. They have prophesied, cast out demons, and done many miracles--not just a few little ones, but many miracles. It is a very striking thing that they are totally self-deceived.
What they say is confusing because they claim that Christ is Lord. But that is not all that becomes confusing. They are doing supernatural things and giving the credit to Jesus Christ. However, when it comes time for judgment, He will say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). The word which is translated “knew” is an intense word which comes out of the Old Testament. It means to know with favor. There was never any relationship between Jesus Christ and these individuals.
It is going to take tremendous discernment to recognize the counterfeits. You must not lose sight of the fact that not only does God have supernatural power, but Satan’s power is also supernatural. In this passage, Jesus does not raise a question about the genuineness of their prophecy, about the genuineness of their casting out demons or about the genuineness of their miracles. Christ does not say, “Their work was all a hoax.” Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t; He does not attack them on that point. The issue was not whether they prophesied, cast out demons or did miracles. The only issue was that Jesus Christ did not know them. Eternity hinges on that fact--a personal relationship with Christ and faith in His finished work. But even without that relationship, people can prophesy, cast out demons and perform miracles.
Part of the problem is that the power and cleverness of Satan is underestimated. Paul told the Corinthians that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. He presents himself as a servant of God, so it is no wonder that Satan’s servants also do the same. If Satan wants to present a counterfeit, a false teacher, the first thing he knows is that a counterfeit must look genuine. People are going to want to know what the teacher says about Christ. The counterfeit must say that Christ is Lord or he will be rejected immediately as a counterfeit. Secondly, the counterfeit must see what kind of power characterized Christ’s life and ministry. Then he must throw in some miracles so that when his works are examined, both what the counterfeit says and what he does will look good.
In the Book of Job it is clear that Satan has that kind of power. In the first chapter Satan and God are having a discussion, a point which seems somewhat startling. Satan has lost his position in heaven, but he has not lost his access into the presence of God. Satan is discussing with God why Job worships Him. God gave Satan permission to test Job in certain ways. “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’ So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord” (v. 12). God gave Satan the opportunity to exercise power in Job’s life, but He limited Satan from touching him physically. The account continues in verses 13 through 15: “Now it happened on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, that a messenger came to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’” Satan had the power to raise up an opposing force and have part of Job’s possessions and servants destroyed.
The tragedy continues in verse 16: “While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’” Satan had the power to call down the fire of God from heaven and bring destruction to others of Job’s possessions and servants. Satan also had the authority to raise up an army to attack Job’s household according to verse 17: “While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.’”
Verses 18 and 19 show the power of Satan over nature to cause a great catastrophic wind to blow over and bring more destruction: “While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died; and I alone have escaped to tell you.’” In these events recorded about the life of Job, Satan had the power to raise up armies, call down fire from heaven and bring the natural elements of the wind to cause great destruction. These were all evidences of Satan’s supernatural power. All God had to do was move back the restraints and allow Satan to exercise his power.
In chapter 2, Satan and God are again discussing Job. In verse 6 God removed the restraints even further allowing Satan additional opportunity to test Job: “So the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.’” As is illustrated in this example, Satan does not need more power. God simply has to remove the restraints so that Satan is allowed to attack Job’s physical body. However, Satan was not allowed to kill Job. “Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (v. 7). This clearly demonstrates the supernatural power of Satan. He could bring disaster to Job’s possessions as well as sickness upon Job’s body when God removed the restraints allowing Satan the opportunity to harass this great man of God.
Just because the supernatural happens does not mean it is from God. Satan is a supernatural being with awesome supernatural power over the elements, over people, over diseases and over illness. All Satan needs is for God to remove the restraints holding him back so he can operate.
Matthew 24 indicates that the greatest time of the miraculous, apart from the time when Jesus Christ was on earth, is yet in the future. This will be primarily in the time of the Great Tribulation, the seven years when Satan will raise up counterfeits of Christ. “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (v. 24). These will not be little signs and wonders, but great ones--dramatic, miraculous things. They will be so dramatic and striking that if it were possible, they would even lead the elect astray from God. I believe that much of what we see today is preparation for the great breaking forth of miracles that is going to happen at that time when the restraints on Satan are lifted to a greater extent than they have ever been before. The supernatural will characterize much of what goes on in the religious realm. But this supernatural activity will all be false.
Second Thessalonians 2:8-9 describes the Antichrist, Satan’s greatest counterfeit, his master imitation of Christ: “And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.” According to these verses, the Antichrist has tremendous power in the context of the activity of Satan. His power is not from God. His signs and wonders are not those which would direct your attention to God. Rather, they are false signs and wonders which direct attention away from God. Satan’s supernatural power is further described in Revelation 13:13: “And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.” All of this will be done by the one who is the Antichrist. This is a clear indication that Satan has tremendous supernatural power.
A good explanation for what is going on in such situations is found in Deuteronomy 13, “If a
prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them’”(v. 1,2). He is not describing a hoax, but rather, a genuine miraculous event. Verse 3 explains what is happening: “You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Then God delivers a command in verse 4, “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” In these situations, God pulls back the restraint and allows Satan to do the miraculous. By so doing, God tests His people and the genuineness of their love for Him.
Many believers today exercise such pitifully poor discernment. When someone gets on the television and says he is doing his work in the name of the Lord and does something striking, believers say, “Oh my, isn’t that wonderful?” But keep in mind that the Lord is testing the genuineness of your love for Him through these situations. If you really love Him, you would be discerning, sifting these things through the Word and examining them carefully. What excuse is there for a child of God to be patterning his life after the imitations of Satan?
Jesus says in Matthew 12 that an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. Such is the characteristic of our generation. Just let someone with the power of oratory claim to do something miraculous and he can pack the people in and keep the checks coming. The tragedy is that many Christians get on the bandwagon and fall in line with the evil, adulterous generation seeking for a sign. They fail to realize that Satan himself can give signs. With such circumstances the Lord is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Some people spend more time trying to determine if an occurrence was truly a miracle than they need to spend. False teachers will say many true things. Many of them will even acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. Chapters 23 and 24 of Numbers describe Balaam, a prophet who was an apostate. Yet he proclaimed much of the truth of God to heathen people. As an unbeliever he was destroyed by God as an apostate being.
There are examples of apostate prophets in the New Testament as well. Acts 16 shows how crafty Satan is as a great counterfeiter. Paul and his company encountered a slave-girl at Philippi with a demonic spirit. “And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortunetelling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation’” (vs. 16,17). If you examine what that demon proclaimed through the slave-girl, you can find no doctrinal error in it at all; it is true. These men are bond-servants of the Most High God. They are proclaiming the way of salvation. Yet the source of the proclamation is a demon. That is a bit unnerving. Eventually Paul cannot take it any longer, so he casts the demon out of the girl.
Jesus did the same thing during His earthly ministry. He confronted the demons who were indwelling people. The demons said, “We know who you are--the Holy One of God.” That is correct doctrinally. Yet the source of that statement is a demonic being. Christ forbids them to speak and to tell who He is.
That indicates that many false prophets and false teachers will speak a lot of the truth. The whole situation gets to be pretty hairy because you begin to think you can’t trust anybody. How are you going to know whether a prophet is true or false? So much of what they say is true and so much of what they do is impressive. That will require asking other questions: Are they doing the will of God? Does their character manifest the character of God? Are their lives permeated with godliness?
The great difficulty with answering these questions comes because all we know about many of these teachers is what we see on television. We may hear what they say and see some striking activities on their part, but we don’t know enough about their personal lives to know whether they manifest godliness or not. I would have nothing to do with supporting teachers in any way if I did not know the character and quality of their lives rather intimately. That is what Jesus refers to when He speaks of doing the will of God. It is not enough to do miracles, to cast out demons, to prophesy or to say that Jesus is Lord. Are such individuals doing the will of the Father? Does the character of God permeate their lives? If not, they are not genuine. The verdict of Jesus will be, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).
The better the counterfeit, the more closely you have to examine it to determine that it is counterfeit. If someone hands you a hundred-dollar bill from a Monopoly game, you recognize right away that it is not genuine money. But if a professional counterfeiter gives you a hundred-dollar bill, you may put it in your pocket thinking it is genuine. It will be necessary for someone with a trained eye, someone who knows what to look for, to determine that it is counterfeit.
Satan is the master counterfeiter in the spiritual realm. Many times people do not give him the credit he is due. He is a super-powerful spirit being with the ability to do tremendous things. If you merely look at the surface of his activities, you will be deceived by his counterfeits. Jesus said in Matthew 24:25, “Behold, I have told you in advance.” Yet some Christians say, “Well, I heard him talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and when he performed that act, he did it in the name of the Lord. God is getting the credit for it.” But Jesus’ question is, “Does he do the will of My Father who is in Heaven?” Examine that teacher closely! I am not saying that every preacher or teacher on television or radio is going to hell. There are some men who proclaim the truth through radio and television ministries. Praise God for them! But be discerning.
Radio and television ministries are not the only places where false teachers abound. There are many false teachers in the pulpits of churches throughout the land. Such individuals have no relationship with God through Christ. Many false teachers do not even claim as much. But be discerning regarding the teachers you listen to. The less you know about the personal life of the individual teacher, the less you can be sure about his genuineness.
At the conclusion of their lives, these false teachers will hear Jesus say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). Their sentence is expanded in Matthew 25:41 where Jesus says, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels,” and again in verse 46 where Jesus says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Scripture is clear that good works are the issue. Godliness must characterize the life of the child of God. I am responsible to submit myself to the Spirit of God and allow Him to control me. As I submit to Him in this way, the result will be His building my character and maturing me, part of the natural process God uses in maturity. Yet, without the transformed life, one is not a child of God. Good works were foreordained by God that His children should walk in them (see Ephesians 2:10).
While writing to professing believers in the church at Corinth, Paul exhorted them, “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?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Jesus Christ resides in you if you are truly a believer. And if He resides in you, He has made you a new creature. He now indwells you to produce His character through your life.
Is there anything of the character of Christ in your life? I am not asking if you attend church or if you were baptized. Is your life characterized by godliness? I am not asking if you trusted Christ and were baptized when you were four. Is your life characterized by godliness? I am not asking if you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. The test is whether your life is characterized by godliness.
No one is saved by living a life of godliness, but if you are saved, you will have a life of godliness. Only those who are true believers in Jesus Christ can have a life of godliness in this way. You must recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord, the son of God who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. You must understand that He was raised because that penalty had been paid. When you believe in Him and His finished work, you are saved eternally. When you believe in Christ in this way your life is transformed from within. The Son of God Himself resides in your life and begins to produce His character in you. You will do the will of God who is in you. Have you really examined yourself? The danger is for you to run by this question and examine someone else. You may eagerly examine the preachers on television or the people in your congregation. But Paul says to examine yourself.
Peter gave similar instructions in his second letter. “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you” (2 Peter 1:10,11). It is the production of the qualities of the life of Christ in your character that testifies to the reality of your profession of salvation. Does your life manifest the godly character of Christ? If not, you are not a believer. Trusting in Christ will result in a transformed life.
Salvation does not belong to all who say, “Lord, Lord.” It belongs to those who do the will of the Father. You must acknowledge Christ as Lord, but you must also do His will. These two concepts are inseparably linked together.
One of the best demonstrations of love that could take place in any congregation would be for the believers to confront one another honestly. If you have known someone who has professed to be a believer for a considerable period of time but that person does not evidence the character of God in his life, it is surely in order for you to question him regarding the evidence of salvation in his character. To take such a step is a fearful thing. If an individual is not a true child of God, that question will surely grate on him and he may resent you for confronting him. But eternity is the issue. In love you ought to confront him about your question.
I am not suggesting that everyone go on a witch-hunt. If we examine our lives, we will recognize that none of us is perfectly consistent. I see many errors, shortcomings and failures in my own life. If you examine my life carefully, you will probably see more than I do. But the test is “Is the character of God evidenced in my life? Is my life changed?” One who is a believer in Jesus Christ should be a changed person.
We must be honest with each other. If we see professing believers around us who fail to manifest anything of God’s character, then we need to be open to being used by the Spirit of God to minister to them and ask the Spirit of God to use us to bring them to life in Christ.
We also need to be careful in the teaching to which we expose ourselves. There are many teachers who represent a wide spectrum of religious beliefs. Is the teacher we are listening to manifesting the Word of God in his life? If you do not know, that should be a strong caution to you regarding involvement in that ministry. If I cannot know enough about the life of the teacher to know whether he manifests godliness in his living, then I want nothing to do with supporting him. He may be genuine, but if I do not know anything about the character of his life, I am uncomfortable in standing behind him. We must be careful to be faithful to God. By our faithfulness in this way, as God tests us we will prove our love to Him by our faithfulness, by submitting to Him as Lord and by following His leadership.