Paul urges us to, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith," and to, "test ourselves for a genuine faith". - 2 Corinthians 13:5
Peter directs us to, "Be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election..." - 2 Peter 1:10
We are to examine, test, and confirm our status to see if we are indeed in the faith or if we are merely fooling ourselves, or perhaps are being fooled by the great deceiver.
So, what exactly are we looking for?
Understanding that God is a God of evidence.
Yes, we are called to "faith", but it is not a blind faith.
Are all people to know that God exists?
Yes!
God's evidence abounds throughout His creation. Diversity, complexity, information, and design, all demand acknowledging an Eternal Designer.
Why "eternal"? Because if there ever was a time when absolutely nothing existed... NOTHING is all there ever could be.
Why a Designer? We know God exists the same way we know a machine was built; intelligence is required to produce what was made.
The evidence before us only allows for one deduction.
Are all people to know that Jesus is God incarnate?
Yes!
Precisely why Jesus displayed miracles.
Luke recorded that Jesus was, "Attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs." - Luke 2:22
And even Jesus's most ardent critics had to admit this fact, "No man can do these miracles except God be with him". - John 3:2
The evidence only allows for one deduction.
Are all people to know that the Bible is God's Holy Word?
Yes!
No other book displays a Divine origin, because no other book does what the Bible continues to do. The Bible has remained relevant and applicable to every human's life throughout all of history.
No other book has produced the life changing effects upon a person's life. For example, if everyone would abide by the teachings of the Bible there would be no divorce, no crime, no violence, no addictions... Every vice of humanity is a direct result of rebellion from the principles and precepts given within the pages of this very ancient Book.
No other book has been attacked, maligned, and destroyed as the Bible has, yet it remains the most sought-after book in this world. Through Manuscripts (historical literary facts), through Archeology (historical peoples and places), through Prophecy (foretelling and fulfillment of events), and through Scientific scrutiny (mathematical probability and scientific accuracy), the Bible remains not only unscathed, but in actuality is validated as being God's inspired word to us.
The evidence only allows for one deduction.
God, Jesus, and the Bible have all be substantiated through evidence.
Obviously, God wants us to look for the evidence (or to take note of a lack thereof) of His presence and influence at work within our life.
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith," and to, "test yourselves for a genuine faith." - 2 Corinthians 13:5
Are all people to know that we are a Christian (Christ follower)?
Jesus told us that there will be evidence...
"You will know a tree by its fruit." - Luke 6:43
"By this everyone will know that you are My disciples." - John 13:35
What should we be looking for?
Are we looking for those blessed with health, wealth, or security?
Or is it someone exuding wholesomeness or a keen Biblical acuity?
Perhaps those who faithfully attend Church services or give in abundance to charity?
But many faiths, religions, and belief systems produce those attributes... the Apostle Paul gives us the true answer; the evidence is LOVE (1 Corinthians 13:1).
LOVE is essential and central to everything...
The Greatest Commandment:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself." - Matthew 26:37-39
The New Command:
"Love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." - John 13:34
Love, love, love...
But let us not deceive ourselves, evidence is produced by actions not utterances.
An example would be a man who tells everyone, "I love my wife", yet he slaps her at home. He says, "But I truly love her", yet he neglects her. This man declares, "She is the one true love of my life", yet he spends most of his attention and finances on his own pleasures.
Does the evidence attest to what is said or to what is done?
How are we to know that we are in the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints?
Is it the intensity or repetition of our confession?
I am a Christian!
I am a follower of Christ!
I am saved!
Or is it our life actions that provide evidence to validate or negate what we confess to be?
Jesus asked, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' yet don't do what I say?" - Luke 6:46
Jesus commanded, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:35
Neither love without action, nor action without love, provides evidence of belonging to Him.
So, we look within ourselves for evidence of a very special love, a Christlike love.
"Just as I (Jesus) have loved you..."
This type of love is opposite of the world's type of love, which is why we are called to REPENT!
"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent." - Acts 17:30
The transition from our natural, inherent, worldly self-love to a Christlike others focused love is called sanctification; and it is sanctification that produces transformation.
This transformation is the evidence that Paul and Peter allude to, because the more we focus on loving others (meeting their needs with what God blessed us with) the more we are like our Savior. "By this everyone will know that you are My disciples..."
Must we be perfect to attain His salvation? NO!
Must we be sincere in our profession of Him becoming our Lord and Savior? YES!
Look around... This world is obviously set up to display this very attribute within each of us. Trials, whether from suffering, poverty, sickness; or from prosperity, wealth, health, all lead each of us to a choice... inward or outward.
Why is it, "The poor you always have with you." - Matthew 26:11
2 reasons:
Because of sin, selfishness (self-love) produces poverty for the losers, which...
1. Provides more opportunity for obedience (or disobedience) to Christ's command to love selflessly as He loved us.
2. May be evidence why there will always be poor. A validation of the latter dominating (mostly disobedient to loving as Christ loved).
The Apostles and early Church displayed and grew in their expressions of outward "other focused" love.
From 1st Century Christ followers to the early Church to the martyrs to the Pilgrims to the founders of Hospitals, Universities and Orphanages, to the Founding fathers of the most benevolent nation in human history to missionaries traveling the world... Evidence of Christlike transformation in people who laid down their life, who took up their cross, and who imitated His example, abounded in these followers of Christ.
All showed disregard to self-love for the betterment of others (displying the greatest love), which is diametrically opposite of the world's way... which is an undisputable display of repentance.
Self-focused love or others focused love?
Jesus declared, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." - Luke 14:26
So, what is the evidence modern Christians display?
Do we display an ever-growing transformation into Christlikeness through repenting of "loving as the world loves"?
Do we see evidence of stagnation within ourselves, where we've gone this far and no further?
While the poor and needy surround us, we embellish our homes, vehicles, vacations, and retirement. We affirm our actions and console our consciences by emphasizing that our status as being saved is solely an issue of election and has nothing to do with my actions (obedience or disobedience) to Christ's New Commandment to follow His example (John 13:34).
The Question for each of us to answer...
Am i more like Christ this year than last, or am i the same Christian just a year older?
Kingdom Love was presented to us, and demonstrated for us, by Love Incarnate... Jesus the Christ. A love that denies self for the sake of others. A love that lays down personal desires for the needs and benefit of others. A promised love that is received from God, by faith and with gratitude, and then conveyed (through us) to others (as faithful stewards).
An "other focused" love that begins small and continually grows as we increasingly become less, and He increasingly becomes more. An "other focused" love that is tested by wealth or poverty, security or peril, health or disease, and is purified through suffering and validated with joy.
Do we exude evidence of a self-focused worldly love for me, my and mine...
Or an others focused Kingdom love just as Christ loved us?
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