Three Tests of a Genuine Believer

I love to watch cult documentaries. I’m always amazed at how so many people are brainwashed into believing all they are told. Yet, at the core of most cults is the belief that if the people just follow all they are told, then they will receive eternal life (in whatever way that looks like). There are even various Christian cults who teach strict adherence to certain rules in order to gain faith and the promise of eternal life. Many of these cults claim that if a follower leaves or breaks some of the rules, then their faith is gone and they are an “apostate”. 

BUT, Ephesians 2:8-9 is very clear:  For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast.

Do our works or adherence to rules or laws give us salvation (and thus eternal life)?? No. It is only by God’s abundant grace that we are saved from the punishment of our sins. 

Yet, don’t we sometimes wonder if our faith is genuine? Do you sometimes wonder if your “walk down the aisle” or moment of conversion was real? I remember a conversation with a child who was seeking to follow through in baptism. When asked about her repenting of her sins, placing her trust in Jesus, and thus being conformed to the likeness of Christ, she simply said she asks Jesus that daily. She assumed it was not a one-and-done, but a daily decision to believe and follow Jesus. She isn’t completely wrong either. Each day we must decide if we will submit to God’s will for our lives and follow Him that day. However, the gift of salvation is a glorious one-and-done moment when we allow the Holy Spirit access to our hearts and minds to begin that regeneration and conforming to be more like Jesus.

I am so incredibly grateful that we have the New Testament, and that we can read the words of the disciple John as he gives us three ways to test to see if our faith is genuine. 

So the following are 3 ways to answer the question: How do I know if I truly know Jesus?

Test of Righteousness

First, do I show I know God by obeying His commands?

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands.  The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:  The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked. 1 John 2:3-6 CSB

I know I have heard other believers say, “But I’m not under law, I’m under grace.” (aka- “He’s already forgiven me, so I can do whatever I want.”) This comes from the New Testament thought, and is not wrong. But the laws still play a role in our lives. Jen Wilkin said that we are “Saved by grace through faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. Our works are evidence that we have truly been converted.”

So how do we relate to God’s law? If the commandments from the Old Testament still play a role in our lives, you may wonder how.

Well, as a christian, our moral nature should be righteousness. When we are a child of God, we want to obey God’s law and demonstrate that in the way we live our lives. When God was coming up with His laws, He wasn’t trying to identify what things would suck out all of the joy from our lives. Instead, He was identifying laws that are aligned to His character. So if we love God, we have to love His law. Even as post New Testament believers, we can think that the law is beautiful because we know that God is beautiful. 

Does this mean we obey all of God’s laws perfectfully? Sadly, no. But it is the means by which we can grow in holiness. 

Scholars (aka much wiser and smarter people than I) have determined that the law has three main ways of usage. 

1. As a mirror, which we see in the book of James. We understand our sin in a new way as the measure against what God commands.

2. As restraint. The law is a way for us to say what is and is not acceptable and when penalties should come into play. This is similar to why boundaries may be put in place, like a speed limit. It is acceptable for all people on the road to stay safe, and thus we should follow the speed limit while driving.

3. As a path of righteousness, showing us what is pleasing to God. We want to obey (because the Holy Spirit indwells in us) and we find delight to do God’s will. Jesus speaks of wide and narrow paths with his sermon on mount. In his sermon the narrow path does not allow us to have freedom to do whatever we want, but allows us to follow the way God designed. (Also, it’s not called a Christian WALK for nothing. We must WALK on a PATH.)

Right now, in our fallen world, it is a challenge to obey God’s laws, but Adam and Eve followed the law pre-fall. And we know when all things are made new in the New Jerusalem, we will obey God’s law perfectly forever.

Another thing to keep in mind is that personal sin has collateral damage because we are meant to live in community. This one can be tricky because aren’t there times when we sin and think “oh, that is just between me and God, it didn’t hurt anyone else.”? I know I have. But even those sinful thoughts can impact those around us by changing our perspective of people. Likewise, personal obedience always results in collateral benefit, even if we don’t get to see the positive impact that our obedience has on others. 

So if we want to look like Jesus, we should obey the commandments.

Test of Love

Do I show I know God by loving my brother?

The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:9-11 CSB

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God and love others. If following His commands are an expression of love, then acting against the law is an act of hatred towards our brothers.

The love being discussed here is agape love. Love that the mind analyzes and the will chooses. With this love, there is nothing in it for the one who extends it to someone else. Most of our love is somewhat based on need, something we need in return- whether safety, compassion, respect. The measure of which we understand the love of God is how quick we love someone with no expectations of something in return. When I show love to others, do I do it this way? 

Obviously the opposite of love is hate. We can hate far away or up close. Even our thinking “man, she is an idiot” is an act of hate toward a sister in Christ. “Okay, but DeeDee, that one lady is seriously unlovable.” I hear you. I struggle with those feelings about some people, too. But God sees them as loveable, so we can pray and ask that He gives us the love for that person that we are struggling with. 

Later in this very passage, John explains that we cannot love the world and our brothers and sisters. Love of the world is in contrast to the love that we should be having towards brothers. 

Test of Truth

Do I show I know God by confessing that Jesus is the Christ?

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
1 John 2:20-23 CSB

John starts this part of the text by reminding his readers that they are the anointed ones. Because Jesus died in our place, we have the Holy Spirit in us. He says it is because of THIS that we know the truth. 

What exactly is the Truth? In the Gospel of John 14:6, Jesus says that HE is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. Only Jesus.

You have to affirm that Jesus is God. You must have the Father and the Son. Fully God and fully man. Jesus had to be fully man to be our substitute, and He had to be fully God to be an acceptable sacrifice. If either are denied, the foundation of the Gospel is gone.

When we are thinking about the role of truth, we should be thinking about the foundations of our faith. The Trinity is a huge foundation of our faith. But there are other aspects as well. 

One way to think about it is that any false teaching elevates the role of man and diminishes the role of God. But just because you disagree with a teaching does not make it false teaching. There is also bad teaching, sloppy teaching, lazy teaching, selective teaching. Unless it is an essential doctrine that threatens the foundation of our orthodoxy, it may be a simple preference. 

One great example is the end times. I remember reading the Left Behind series of books as a child (obviously the kids version). Because that was my first real introduction to the end times, the rapture, and the tribulation, that colored my interpretation of Revelation. But my pastor does not agree that my view of Revelation is accurate. Does that mean one of us has had false teaching? Not at all. We both agree on the main truths of the faith. And because we both recognize that no one has experienced it yet, there's just no way to know for sure.

There is no special knowledge, like believers at the time of John’s letter thought. Because of the Holy Spirit, we can know the truth of our beliefs. But we must have discernment to tell what is sound doctrine, which means we must study our Bibles to know truth.

So, in conclusion, when trying to evaluate if we truly know God and are living as genuine believers, we must analyze our actions, desires, and beliefs. We have to ask ourselves the following questions to determine if the answers line up with the Bible: What am I doing? What am I feeling? What am I thinking?