Our knowledge about God is no measure or gauge of our knowledge of God or personal acquaintance with him as Lord and Savior. It is tempting to be just content to be theologically correct and not apply what we know; still, thirst and desire for the truth is a good thing and a positive sign of spiritual life and of its fruit. The Bible says this about unbelievers and the reason for their condemnation: "Because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10). Orthopraxy (right ethics) is important just as orthodoxy (right doctrine) is, and that is why the epistle of James was written: the faith you have is the faith you show! However, one can be wrong in nonessential doctrine and still be a good Christian.
John Bunyan wrote a masterpiece, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners! Could Paul be the chief of sinners and still know God? Actually, yes! Jesus said in his great intercessory prayer that eternal life is to "know [God]." Being a Christian is not about being religious, memorizing the dance of the pious, or playing along with the game or the rules. There are indeed hypocrites who talk the talk but don't walk the walk and pretend to be Christians and are ones in name only (nominal Christians) in order to gain something (by ulterior motive).
NB: Someone has wisely said that Christ didn't come to make bad people good, even though Christ changes lives and many who are born again have wonderful testimonies of being such vile sinners and have had their lives turned around. Someone then added that Christ came to make dead people live (spiritually, that is). All Christians are sinners--but justified sinners, though,(if one has a relationship with God through Jesus).
All of our righteousness is as "filthy rags" (Is 64:6), and our "fruitfulness" comes from God (Hosea 14:8). And all that we have done is through Christ's power (Isa 26:12 says He has actually has accomplished it through us!). What is paramount is knowing God (Hos 6:6 says: "I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." We have then only done our duty and what is required of us as a servant of God (vessels of honor). "Since You have performed for us all our works" (Isa. 26:12). "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me" (Rom. 15:18). In other words, our goodness and virtue is God's gift to us, not our gift to God.
God isn't looking for religious people who keep all the so-called "rules of engagement". He's looking for thirsty souls who want to seek his face and have a desire to have fellowship with him and worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Amos 6:13 mentions believers who boasted of what they had accomplished as if God didn't just use them to do his own will--it wasn't by their strength at all. Paul said that he "would not venture to speak, but of what Christ had accomplished through [him]" (Rom. 15:18). "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD," says Zechariah 4:6.
God's chief controversy, or peeve, against Israel, as Hos. 4:1 says that "there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land." So, who is the better Christian? One who is moral and ethical and has a successful life, achieving the American dream, for instance, or the sinner, saved by grace, who knows he's a work in progress-- but truly knows the Lord? Prosperity, therefore, is not necessarily a sign of God's good favor or approval. Ps. 17:14 says the wicked have their reward or portion in this life. Soli Deo Gloria!
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