Donald Phlegar, missionary to Thailand, shared a story that was circulating among the Thai people about a man who had a lion. The lion had a habit of eating people. His owner told him it would be all right for him to eat one or two people a day, but the lion must not eat any Christians. One day the lion ate a man except for a small area around his lips. When the lion’s owner saw what the lion had done he asked for an explanation. The lion replied, ‘You told me I could eat anyone except a Christian. Well, this man was a Christian in his mouth only!’”
There have always been people who are Christians in their mouth only. For example, Paul wrote of the people of Crete, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:16)...