Ping!
I know people who claim (claimed) to be Christian and NOTHING ever really changed for them.
One woman in particular who I dealt with used all the right lingo but refused to get into the word and would not deal with her ongoing personal issues.
She was a master manipulator and I am convinced that she picked up on just enough of what she thought I wanted to hear and used it to try to manipulate me.
She has passed on and I can only hope that her claims of conversion were genuine. I’ll find out some day.
I agree.
There are people who wish to be active in the culture of Jesus, and who profess belief, but have not fully committed their trust to Jesus, and are not truly "born anew." I call them "unregenerated believers." However, it is not given to me to judge whether one is or is not regenerated. Nevertheless, I often must evaluate whether or not one acts as though they are regenerated, and deal with them accordingly, regarding the degree of confidence for me to place in that person's profession.
One outstanding example was Charles Templeton (click here), the erstwhile evangelist contemporary and friend of Billy Graham.
Templeton was such an enthusiastic but unregenerate believer that he even fooled himself for quite a while. But events sadly show that one must assess that God never saved him.
On the other hand, one must realistically treat a person who says they do not trust God or Jesus as truly being unregenerate.