Hey Oscarr,
You used the term "truly converted" twice in your post.
Could you elaborate on what you mean? Thanks.
True conversion is a total transformation of the heart toward Christ. Before, the sinner loved and enjoyed sin and was totally resistant to anything to do with Christ. This is the natural state of mankind. Their hearts are set against God and Christ and without a work of the Holy Spirit, they will never want to understand or obey the gospel.
What happens is that someone shares the gospel with a sinner. He hears the gospel but does not understand it and is resistant to its requirements. The believer then prays that God will enlighten the sinner. As a result, the Holy Spirit gives the sinner understanding that he is an unworthy sinner, deserving of hell, and that the only way to be accepted of God is through the death and resurrection of Christ.
This causes the sinner to come under intense conviction of sin and he is moved to praying and seeking after God. As a result of his prayers, the Holy Spirit gives him saving faith to receive Christ as Saviour. Once having received Christ as Saviour, he goes through a total transformation as his spirit comes alive to God, and he receives a new heart to love God and Christ, and hate his own sinfulness. This transformation is what I mean by true conversion. Most, if not all of this process is done privately with God.
As you can see, this is quite different than a person making just an outward profession of Christianity without a total change of heart toward God. A person can decide to attend church, read the Bible, live a moral life, but all this comes from his old carnal nature and not the new nature that is formed by an inner, heart conversion to Christ. His religion is just an outward observance to religious observances before others, but he reverts to his natural carnal self when away from the religious influences.
But the genuinely converted believer has no confidence in himself to make himself holy, but loves Christ and strongly desires to live the way Christ would want him to live, whether he is at church, home, at work, or mixing socially. He is not afraid to be a Christian believer in any environment, because it is in his heart to want to please Christ in all he does. He hates it when he loses the battle with the flesh, and this causes him distress that he has failed his Lord.
It is almost impossible to tell the difference between a truly converted believer and a religious hypocrite but looking at them. Often a religious hypocrite will appear more saintly and holy in many cases than the true believer. But appearances can be deceiving, because man looks on the outward appearance and God looks upon the heart where we cannot see.
This is why, as truly converted believers, we must hate the sin in ourselves, but love everyone else no matter who they are.
