Am I a Christian? - The Test of Obedience

1 John 2v3-5a

13^th March 2020

Do you ever wonder whether you're a Christian or not? Are you genuinely born again, adopted as a child of God? We can't know the answer by examining our feelings, or by considering how popular or unpopular we are, or how well things are going in our lives. We need to know what the Bible says about it. In Chapter 2, verses 5-11, John presents us with three tests as to whether we are truly Christians. The first test is the test of obedience:

1 John 2v3-5a
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.

Do you keep God's commands?

Of course, none of us keep God's commands perfectly. As John has already said, we all still sin sometimes. But by and large, are you a person who keeps God's commands? Are you a person who wants to keep God's commands? Do you want this so sincerely that you study the Bible to find out what God's commands are? Do you pray for strength to keep them? When you fail to keep God's commands, do you feel disappointed with yourself, go to God and apologise? Do you pray for the gift of repentance? Is there something within your heart that deeply desires to keep God's commands? Is there something in your lifestyle that demonstrates that you are living more in accordance with scripture, and keeping God's commands more than you used to?

Or are you rather uninterested in whether or not you keep God's commands? Are you content to do what seems right to you, without any great concern for what the Bible teaches?

This is the test.

Do you identify with scriptures like:

Psalm 119:1-5
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.
they do nothing wrong;
they walk in his ways.
You have laid down precepts
that are to be fully obeyed.
Oh, that my ways were steadfast
in obeying your decrees!

Is that how you feel?

If you know God, if you love God, you will want to please Him by living His way. Jesus asked His disciples:

Luke 6:46
"Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

Jesus also said:

John 15:10
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…

Because the question of whether you obey God's commands is such a fundamental test of whether you're a Christian or not, John next says:

1 John 2:4
The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Anybody can claim to be a Christian, but if you're living in a way which ignores what the Bible teaches, then John says you're not a Christian.

We all sin sometimes. Even John, who wrote this, knew that he sinned sometimes, but a Christian will try to obey the Bible, and will make some progress in doing so. If a person isn't even trying to obey the Bible, then he has no right whatsoever to call himself a Christian, a person in relationship with the God who wrote the Bible.

It's good to stop and consider how our lives, and our words, stand up to the scrutiny that comes from reading the Bible. Am I aware of any area where I'm not living God way? Am I going to do something about it? If not, why do I call myself a Christian?

1 John 2:5a
But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.

Do you want to obey God's word? To grasp Biblical teaching on how we should live, a good start would be to learn the Ten Commandments. You can read them in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, but I strongly suggest you learn them, not necessarily word-for-word but at least in summary. Something like this:

God comes first
Don't let anything be an idol
Don't abuse God's name
Take one day off every week
Respect your parents
Don't murder
Don't commit adultery
Don't steal
Don't tell lies about people
Don't want what belongs to somebody else

All these commandments are really about love. The first four are about loving God, and the last six are about loving other people. If you love your neighbour you will not murder him, you will not sleep with his wife, you will not steal his property, you will not tell lies about him, and you won't even think about doing such things.

If you're born again, if you truly love God, you will want to live in accordance with these precepts.

Consider:

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

You see, all the Law and all the Prophets, that is, all the Old Testament, is about love: love for God, love for other people and, of course, God's love for us. If you truly love God and truly love other people, you will keep all the Ten Commandments and all the other moral teaching in the Bible, because they're really all about how to love God and other people, what true love really looks like.

Jesus also told His followers:

John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Of course, a non-Christian, a person who hasn't received the Holy Spirit of God, couldn't possibly love Christians the way Jesus loves us. But we who are Christians are commanded to love each other in a Christ-like way: sacrificial, full of grace and full of forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so.

Again, we won't be perfect at this, but this is the goal, this is the standard. The love of Christ should be detectable in our attitude to each other, even though not perfectly.

If we more-or-less keep these laws of love, then it will be evident that we have experienced God's love for us, and that God's love for us has changed us so we love Him, and we love others, and we particularly love our fellow Christians, in a Christ-like way.