Biblically, however, there appears to be one test repeated above all others. We've already looked at it, but it is repeated so often that it deserves another look. This test was offered by Christ Himself and repeated in other passages.
This statement is made in John 14. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Love is the command. Now, it does not say, "You love Me by obeying Me." That's not there at all. It says that the natural result of loving Christ is obeying Him. And that makes perfect sense. You pursue hardest that which you love the most. Simple. If you love Him, your greatest joy is doing that which pleases Him. Not hard to figure at all. Beyond this, then, Jesus considered it a test of sorts.
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)The idea is that there is a defining mark, a clear proof, whereby people can look and say, "Yep! They have the mark of a disciple of Christ." What is that mark? "Love for one another." Without it, you have reason to question your relationship with Christ. On two counts, in fact, because we've already seen "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." If loving Christ is the primary connection to salvation and we refuse to obey, there is a logical disconnect if we don't obey and especially if we don't obey in this primary command to love one another.
So important was this test that Jesus reworded it in His High Priestly Prayer as a critical demonstration of His relationship with His Father.
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me." (John 17:20-21)Loving one another -- being one -- is the primary test "so that the world may believe that You have sent Me." Our unity in our love for one another tells the world that Christ is God's Son sent to save them. Say that another way. Our unity in love for one another is the proof of the Gospel.
John really keyed in on this in his epistle written "so you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). He wrote, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Love here is the absolutely essential ingredient. "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). John believes God's love for us makes the clear demand that we love one another (1 John 4:11). Then he goes on to say, "If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). He concludes, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:20-21). Helpfully, he gives an example of "love his brother." "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" (1 John 3:16-17).
Jesus said it. John expanded on it. Paul was clear on it (Gal 5:14). Love is the critical test. Love produces behaviors which include obedience to God and genuine concern for the welfare of others with special attention to loving the brethren. You can't love in word only; it must include action. "We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." It is the best test available.
So, how about it? How are you doing? Do you love the brethren? Or do you find that a good number of those brethren irritate you enough that you refuse to love them? Could your refusal be sufficient to be classified as hate? How does your interaction with online believers look -- love or hate? (Note that "disagree" or even "confront sin" are not, by definition, "hate." The heart attitude and intent define that.) Scripture considers love for the brethren the best possible test. Each of us needs to examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith.
13 comments:
it seems that the exercise to determine if you are saved can be rather exhaustive. you have highlighted many proofs and rightly so. however it would seem that the point of the effort is to know you are saved, and to come to a defining moment. we are encouraged to KNOW, we are not encourage to spend our days is a state of constant self examination. the point i believe is to settle the issue. am i saved ? yes or no.. if yes, then close the book on this question, and move forward to loving and serving your lord. i would also like to point out that all of the character traits of a saved person are variable from one believer to another, but they are only applied to the believer after the fact of being saved. in-addition these character traits are of the Lord, instilled by the holy spirit. if the child of God sees in himself lacking in these areas, he should pray for growth. when placing the cart before the horse one would get stuck trying to measure up to the character traits to determine if he is saved. this nothing more than a cycle of insanity. what must i do to be saved? check your character traits? no... believe in the lord, that he died for your sins, and tho shall be saved. then and only then God will begin a new work in you.
Yes, and something I've pointed out before remains relevant. The point of these "tests" is not to find out if "I've arrived" by means of perfection. The point is "Are these present and growing?" Because we never "arrive" this side of heaven.
I love the story of Abraham who was promised a son by Sarah in his old age. He did some stupid things while holding that promise -- Hagar, a couple of "she's not my wife; she's my sister", that kind of thing -- but Abraham is listed in Scripture as a man of faith (Heb 11:8-10; 17-19). Not that he was perfect in faith from the beginning, but that was his arc, his direction. It was present, even though weak at the beginning, and grew. That's what we hope to see in ourselves.
The other important point is that it's rather difficult to do this for another person. That's not the aim.
While I agree that we can know, I'm not sure about asking the question once and moving on. Not a constant fear and doubt, but a periodic re-evaluation. It is too easy for us to slip into bad habits without keeping watch. I'd place it in the category of the preservation (perseverance) of the saints. Part of that perseverance is evaluating your progress. As Stan said, it's not about attaining perfection now, but is there growth. And without frequent evaluation, you can't know if you've grown.
Since assurance is our own confidence in the salvation we've been given, I would guess that the idea is that when the question arises, we would have a place to go to settle the question. As we are sanctified -- shaped more and more like Christ -- I would imagine that the question would come up less and less. If, on the other hand, it never comes up, I would be concerned.
Dan, I'm glad for you that you can have no questions, that you can have the assurance you're sure I can't. The fact that you demonstrate such vitriol against people you claim are Christians but disagree with you completely makes me wonder how you define "love", but that's your problem, not mine. The fact that you consider yourself the highest authority on evaluating God and His Word in your own life makes me wonder what you consider to be "loving God", but, again, that's your problem, not mine. My only issue will be to continue to pray for you that might come to a saving relationship with the Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Can we at least assert that someone who has been calling himself or herself a Christian for years but has still not read the Bible in its entirety is in serious jeopardy? I ask because I am having an ongoing discussion online with a Christian, and just today she doubted me that "urim and Thummim" are items the Bible speaks of.
"Can we at least assert that someone who has been calling himself or herself a Christian for years but has still not read the Bible in its entirety is in serious jeopardy?"
I've tried in this series to offer biblical tests -- the methods offered in Scripture that suggest ways we can tell if we're saved. I have noted all along that 1) perfection is not one of them, and 2) that we're testing ourselves, not others. Since "read the Bible in its entirety" pushes toward "perfection" and since it isn't in the Bible as a test as such, I'd have a difficult time using it that way. In fact, as it turns out, no one in the Bible ever read the whole Bible, so ...
Now, I might suggest that someone who claims to love God (a valid test) but doesn't much care what God had to say (His Word) might need to reexamine their sense of assurance. But reexamining their own condition is their job, not mine.
Note: That "no one in the Bible ever read the whole Bible" was a joke. They were writing it, you know.
I’d be fascinated to have seen Dan’s comment, as he’s previously argued quite vociferously that salvation is something that can be gained and lost repeatedly.
I’d say that reading the Bible would certainly be a prerequisite for knowing what God has communicated to us and that it’s the only rational place to find the commandments we keep because we love Him. But, I’d certainly never say it’s impossible.
I’ll also second the notion that some degree of periodic evaluation is necessary, failure to do so seems to lead to complacency.
Probably wouldn't have been as interesting as you might have hoped. He just said that by the things I'd written he was sure that he was saved and, since it was unloving of me not to agree with him on that, I might want to question my own salvation. Nothing wordy or even edgy.
Got it, although given his previous arguments in favor of not being able to know and being able to lose and regain salvation, his newfound certainty might be a step in the right direction. Maybe if he acknowledged the existence of the commandments Christ says we’d obey if we loved Him.,,
Come on, Craig, it's not a rule book, you know.
Ok, you win.
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