In the latter months of World War II, as the Allies were closing in on Germany, the Nazis developed a ruse that worked well for a while.

They would find German soldiers who spoke English well and dress them as Americans. They would arrange for them to be “lost” and to rejoin the Alllied forces as they moved forward. Their task: to infiltrate the American troops and assassinate Generals Eisenhower and Patton.

In time, the good guys developed some tests for exposing the fakes. One German was cut down by the Americans when they saw how he was walking. He was ramrod straight whereas all our troops slouched when they walked.

Another group learned to address the soldier using “pig Latin.” If he was stymied by that, he was exposed.

And they developed questions. Two, I recall, were: Who is Betty Grable? and What position did Lou Gehrig play?

The answers were: movie star/pinup girl and first base for the Yankees. It was understood that every GI in the world would know this.

If you have been in the warfare against the forces of righteousness and the enemies of all that is good and holy for any period of time, you have come up against counterfeits and pretenders, fakes and shams.

The question is, how do you tell? And what should we do about them?

Across the world, untold millions of Christians cannot afford a Bible and have trouble feeding their families. And yet, here in this country, some preach that following Jesus is the road to great wealth. They own jet planes, drive expensive automobiles, live in zillion-dollar homes, and think nothing of investing a small fortune in clothing and jewelry. They give a pittance to missions overseas and when confronted, will drag out a few children they have assisted to silence critics.

Are they fakes? Absolutely.

There are serial adulterers and child-abusers in the ministry. There are priests and preachers who use their positions of influence to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. Fakes? It’s hard to come to any other conclusion.

I have personally known of ministers who decided to become well-known and build large congregations by whatever gimmicks it took in order to gain the perks that notoriety brings. Shameful? Ugly? Awful? That and so much more.

Jesus said of the religious leaders of His day, Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplace, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation (Mark 12:38-40).

On the phrase “devour widows’ houses,” John MacArthur writes, “Scribes often served as estate planners for widows, which gave them the opportunity to convince distraught widows that they would be serving God by supporting the temple or the scribe’s own holy work. In either case, the scribe benefited monetarily and effectively robbed the widow of her husband’s legacy to her.”

Ministers sometimes identify “fakes” and “counterfeits” as the ungodly, carnal people in the pews who try to work their church membership to financial or other advantage. There is that, of course.

But even more pervasive and deadly are the preachers who fleece the sheep in the name of the Lord.

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesian church that they should be on the alert for wolves of two types:  from inside their own congregation as well as invaders from outside.

There are the two groups of church destroyers we must always be watching for: the obvious kind and the insiduous kind.

The obvious are those who brag about their ungodly ways and clearly violate the teachings of Jesus without apology.

The insiduous are those who work undercover and are known only to God.

The first, we should speak out against.

The second, we leave to the Lord.

The parable of the tares in Matthew 13 applies here.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)

If the person’s apostasy is clear and overt, we must address it.

If the character of the impostor is not so clear and if attacking him would hurt large numbers of believers, leave him for the Lord to deal with in His own good time.

Two scriptures come to mind to help God’s people identify the fakes and shams….

By their fruits you shall know them (Matthew 7:20).

They went out from us because they were not of us (I John 2:19).

What kind of fruit are they bearing in their own personal life and in the lives of those who sit under their ministries?

And, do they persevere?

Tony Campolo, right about so many of the issues he addresses from pulpits and through his books but brutal in some of his assessments, has said that no Christian should drive a BMW. I imagine he means expensive automobiles of any make. And the point of that is that God’s people should not spend money foolishly on themselves just because they have it. God gives to us so that we might be generous.

What car should preachers drive?  Where should they live?  How should they dress?

It’s all relative, I know. The home I live in, humble by most standards, is a mansion to many across the globe. The car I drive may as well be a Lear jet to millions of believers for whom a bicycle or their bare feet is their mode of transportation.

Nearly forty years ago, my wife and I made the Lord three vows: We would live simply, give generously, and encourage pastors.

To what extent we have kept those vows and am still keeping them, we will leave to the Lord. They still loom large in my mind.

Character, they say, is what you are in the dark. When no one is looking and only God sees, that’s who you are.

God help us to be genuine, the real thing.