And doing it in a carnal way it seems to me. He seems to be focusing on the external. Even the question “am I a Christian” followed by some external law keeping criteria puts the focus on the carnal. I realize it’s a fine line sometimes but like you say “we are being conformed” and to demand that all Christians exhibit the same “holiness” or “righteousness” to determine if they are saved is not what scripture teaches. That level of expectation would have the tendency to drive new Christians into believing they must not have been saved after all.
The problem I have is that we all struggle with some sin that seems to be a particular weakness for us.
*The sin that so easily besets us*.
Now, I can not do the sin in my flesh, in the body. I have the self-control, but the thought life???
That’s another matter. And Jesus teaches that even thinking some things is the same as doing them. Hating = murder. Lust = adultery.
So the outside can be clean and the inside not.
He comes perilously close to advocating a works based salvation. I honestly think that it’s that kind of severity what has driven people away from churches.
I know how this is coming across sounding, but I do think there needs to be more coming along side someone who is struggling. Not to condone the sin but to encourage. It’s the speck and the log thingie.
Encourage the weak.
Just don’t dismiss Yeshua’s words: “he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved.”
They cannot be idle words.