Jesus said there would be “tares” among His people (Matthew 13:24-30). Tares are church attenders who appear to be Christians in many ways except one. They bear no fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). They are not becoming more and more gentle, patient, loving, self-controlled (especially their tongues), etc. They are not becoming more and more like Jesus.
We must not consider these people to be genuine Christians, and we must not treat them as such. We should not waste our time and energies and other precious resources, using all sorts of techniques, trying to move and inspire these people to obey God (except for preaching the gospel for them to get saved).
It is almost impossible to get a godly response from these people. We may get them to attend church gatherings of all sorts; we may get them to carry out church responsibilities; we may get them to be enthusiastic about and even lead all sorts of activities; we may get them to "come forward to the altar" time and time again; we may get them to tell others some true things about Jesus (See, for example, Acts 16:16-18.); we may get them to invite others to church; we may get them to do whatever we ask of them; but they are not saved disciples of Jesus.
If people are not moved by just the teaching of the Scriptures (not decorated, not sweetened up with fun, entertainment, etc.), how can we be justified in calling them Christians? Their attitude towards the Word gives them away.
As some wise person said, "Churches spend themselves entertaining the goats, instead of feeding the sheep." We must be careful not to fall into that pattern.
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