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I believe 1 Corinthians 13 is the Christian Plumbline. It is a description of agape kind of love which only comes from the Father and is gifted to us as we become more and more full of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this kind of love can only be exhibited through God. Why would it be necessary for anyone to warn believers about unbelievers? Why would it be necessary to warn believers about themselves? It shouldn't, but God certainly felt compelled to do so; and He preserved those warnings in His love letter to us. Peter had trouble with the agape kind of love and that is true of believers today.

Hebrew 3:12 Watch out, brothers, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. I believe is a warning to Christians to keep their congregations pure from the world. Because of several other verses...

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Where does the true heart come from? Only from God. Man cannot achieve it alone. God changes our hearts when we become one with the Holy Spirit the instant we believe in Jesus. Then we are faced with choices throughout the rest of our earthly life which results in proving faith. We stumble and fall on occasion, and every time God picks us up, dusts us off, and urges us to go back to school. It is important because we learn in Hebrews 10:26 For if we are willfully sinning after receiving the full knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice concerning sins,

Psalm 17:3 You have tested my heart; You have visited by night; You have tried me and found nothing [evil]; I have determined that my mouth will not sin. [Or [evil]; my mouth will not sin] David cassures us that God found nothing evil in his heart after searching it... yet, David did commit adultery. The lust in his heart for Bathsheba was not always there. David should have been with his army fighting that battle instead of reclining by the fire and eating bonbons. What God did to David, He is surely doing to believers because nothing is secret from Him. He is constantly searching our hearts and knows those who are true with pure hearts and those who are wicked pretenders. The tell is exhibited in Matthew 22. That one wedding guest who had no new wedding clothes.

But there is one thing to cling to…
1 Samuel 15:13 So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD took control of David from that day forward.

But David still sinned with Bathsheba. David still prayed for God to keep him safe from evil. Even the best of believers sometimes succumb to temptations and get tangled in Satan’s sticky web.

Psalm 141:4 Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or wickedly perform reckless acts with men who commit sin. Do not let me feast on their delicacies. It is only the foolish that live godlessly and the wicked that God hates.
Proverbs 3:32 for the devious are detestable to the LORD, but He is a friend to the upright.

Isaiah 32:6 For a fool speaks foolishness and his mind plots iniquity. He lives in a godless way and speaks falsely about the LORD. He leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink.

Another example of a warning to believers against unbelievers in their midst is the letter to Pergamum 14But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the sons of Israel: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. 15 In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

Jesus said, “Them” not “you”. How interesting He separated them from believers. He knew those who were new creations even if their garments were a bit dirty around the hem. That is one reason He washed the disciples feet. We are bound to get a little dirty when walking around in a dirty place. We are supernaturally changed.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things [Other mss read look, all new things] have come.
Galatians 6:15
For [ Other mss add in Christ Jesus] both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; [what matters] instead is a new creation.

An example of warning to unbelievers is the letter to Laodicea. 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth. I believe this is to unbelievers because according to Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit lives within us and He becomes one with us (John 17) and in doing so, God creates a completely new creature. To spew out of the mouth means that it never went to the stomach. It was intimate, but the relationship never developed into full agape love.
This letter also says that these people are naked, blind and poor even though they do not know it.
Believers are not naked, but unbelievers are sadly with any covering. Matthew 22:11 And the king having come in to view those reclining, saw there a man not clothed with clothing of the marriage-feast, 2 Corinthians 5:3 if so be that, having clothed ourselves, we shall not be found naked,

There are lots of verses that describe Believers as rich and as having Spiritual 20/20 vision and discernment. In the letters to the seven churches we have warnings to the pretend Christians and to the believers. Those who go to church and go through the motions of being Christian, who live a public life beyond reproach but their hearts are black with sin. They are absolutely miserable, they don't know why they are miserable and think because they are wealthy according to the world's standards and go to church, they are saved. Not.

One of the deepest warnings to unbelievers, and most graphic, is in John 3:18-21The one believing into Him is not condemned; but the one not believing has already been condemned, for he has not believed into the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the Light, for their works were evil. 20 For everyone practicing wickedness hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, that his works may not be exposed. 21 But the one doing the truth comes to the Light, that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God.

An extraordinary contrast between living in the light and living in the dark. We should be able to know beyond doubt who is a believer and who is not. Why is it so difficult to know? Because there are a lot of Christians who have chosen the dark. Are they true believers? I guess we’ll never know until we get to Heaven or unless there is a blatant lifestyle change. Sad, isn’t it?

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

The Curse is Gone