What are characteristics of false repentance?

Carlton McCleod explains in this video that it is often difficult to determine whether where a person is demonstrating true or false repentance from one encounter. False repentance springs up quickly and is accompanied by emotion but there is no life to it beyond the moment.

Simply because an individual is emotional and there are tears doesn’t necessarily mean that he is truly repentant. False repentance springs up quickly and is very quickly taken away by worldly concerns. We must walk with people for awhile to fully ascertain whether they are truly repentant. It is easy for someone to apologize for something but later do the same thing later that day. 

1 John 3:9 (NKJV) - "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."



I'm no longer sure that I can tell what true repentance is in one meeting, in one service. In answering the question, I think false repentance springs up very quickly. It may be accompanied by All the things that we are looking for, tears and emotion, but there's no life to it beyond the moment. That's why I'm saying it can be tricky. I know I've been deceived by it.

I know all these brothers just, oh, look at how, look, he's emotional. His face is all red. His tears are wet. But it could be because I was a halfway decent orator that day, it could be because we played soft music and it moved his heart. But it doesn't necessarily mean that next week, and next year, and 10 years from now, that brother will still be walking with the Lord.

So I think false repentance springs up quickly, is very quickly taken out by worldly concerns. Again, I go back to the parable of the soils or the heat of the day or cares of this life. And I think it's difficult to tell at first, in most cases. And we need to walk with people for a while to be able to more fully ascertain true repentance. I mean, literally I've seen this kind of an aside, but literally I've seen husbands apologize to their wives and that night they leave.

You know, I've seen as an elder, you go, hey, you know, this was wrong. You just need to be corrected. Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, okay, okay, I'm so, so sorry. And then you call the next day and you check, oh no, he packed his bags, he's gone. Was that repentance real?

It looked real, it felt real, I wanted it to be real.