(Photo from Stuart Miles - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Over the last few blog posts, I've been offering ideas that challenge the notion of what being a Christian looks like. Again, my point is not to say that these things (such as going to church, serving the poor, reading your Bible) are anti-Christian, so much as to note that a person can do these things and still not truly be a Christian. See my last post (20 Things That Don't Make You A Christian) by clicking HERE.
Today, we're going to give some thoughts on how to assess if a person truly is a Christian. It's worth noting a few things as I start.
1. These ideas are best used when applied to our own lives first and foremost. In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus challenges His hearers to consider their own issues and lives before they start looking outward.
The following ideas should first be applied to ourselves.
2. Some might then argue, "Who am I to judge if someone else is a Christian? Isn't that something only God can truly know?" Yes, in the end of it all, the spiritual state of a person can really only be known by that individual and by God, and so we proceed with caution and humility. I would be very hesitant to speak too boldly to a person and say, "I know for a fact you are not a Christian." I would much more likely say, "I love you enough to say I have some questions about where you are with God" or something along those lines.
However, Paul makes a bold and necessary statement in his writing to the church at Corinth when in 1 Corinthians 5:12 he says that is their job to judge those inside the church (click HERE to see the chapter). Judging the behavior of those inside the church assumes that Paul has a sense of who is truly a part of the Body of Christ and who is not. Paul goes on to say that God will judge those outside of the Body, but that believers are called to judge, correct, and help fellow believers in a different way than they do non-believers.
3. In Galatians 5, Paul tells us that in the end the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love. In 1 Corinthians 13, we read that without love, our actions amount to nothing. So in all of this assessment of who might or might not be a Christian, the core has to be love. And if it is done well, asking these kinds of questions is THE most loving thing a person can ever do. What more loving action can a person take toward another but to help challenge, clarify, and give assurance that yes - in fact - a person does have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ? In the end that is all that will truly matter.
Here are a few ways to help determine if you are or if another is truly a Christian.
1. A heart of repentance
Today, we're going to give some thoughts on how to assess if a person truly is a Christian. It's worth noting a few things as I start.
1. These ideas are best used when applied to our own lives first and foremost. In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus challenges His hearers to consider their own issues and lives before they start looking outward.
The following ideas should first be applied to ourselves.
2. Some might then argue, "Who am I to judge if someone else is a Christian? Isn't that something only God can truly know?" Yes, in the end of it all, the spiritual state of a person can really only be known by that individual and by God, and so we proceed with caution and humility. I would be very hesitant to speak too boldly to a person and say, "I know for a fact you are not a Christian." I would much more likely say, "I love you enough to say I have some questions about where you are with God" or something along those lines.
However, Paul makes a bold and necessary statement in his writing to the church at Corinth when in 1 Corinthians 5:12 he says that is their job to judge those inside the church (click HERE to see the chapter). Judging the behavior of those inside the church assumes that Paul has a sense of who is truly a part of the Body of Christ and who is not. Paul goes on to say that God will judge those outside of the Body, but that believers are called to judge, correct, and help fellow believers in a different way than they do non-believers.
3. In Galatians 5, Paul tells us that in the end the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love. In 1 Corinthians 13, we read that without love, our actions amount to nothing. So in all of this assessment of who might or might not be a Christian, the core has to be love. And if it is done well, asking these kinds of questions is THE most loving thing a person can ever do. What more loving action can a person take toward another but to help challenge, clarify, and give assurance that yes - in fact - a person does have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ? In the end that is all that will truly matter.
Here are a few ways to help determine if you are or if another is truly a Christian.
1. A heart of repentance
(Photo by Hyena Reality - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
So what does that mean? Well, when Jesus started His ministry, it began with this word, "Repent...".
(See Matthew 4:17). John the Baptist - the fore-runner to Jesus - preached this same word and in much the same way (See Matthew 3:1-2). The word repent is often interpreted as 'feeling bad about the bad things you've done'. But this is not repentance. Repentance is a turning-away-from. Repentance is often described as turning the other way or turning 180-degrees in the opposite direction.
Fundamental to the Christian life is repentance. It is not just feeling bad about having done some bad things, but instead is a heart's desire that is followed by action - however broken and frail - to change. This kind of change is empowered by God (see Philippians 2:12-13) but don't miss that a person who is truly converted to Christ, truly born-again will show a heart of repentance. Ezekiel 36 says that part of this new life in God is a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that desires to follow God's law. And thus we logically conclude if a person has this new heart and falls short in following God's direction, he or she will be broken-hearted about it. A heart of repentance is shown in a desire to do right and a soul-level distress when we fall short in this.
This doesn't mean a constant beating-up-of-one's-self, but in a world that too often wants to say, "Don't worry - it's ok", repentance says, "It is not ok, and so accepting God's grace and working with it, I move foward." A heart of repentance - as it grows - hates sin more and more, and it despises what sin is and does to humans.
2. Affection for Jesus
When you get the Gospel, the Gospel gets you.
When I grasp my need for Christ as Savior, Lord, and as the One who will empower me daily through the Holy Spirit, my heart swells with gratitude and love for Him. If I have no sense of affection for Jesus, it's hard to imagine that I am a Christian. On a human level we understand this, don't we? If a person gave his life for me in an act of heroism, but then my response was a luke-warm, "Oh, that's nice", wouldn't we say, "Man, I don't think that person really gets what was done for him!" And so how much more on a cosmic level should this be true?
This is why you may hear preachers say that if a person just 'prayed the prayer' to get out of going to Hell and to get into Heaven, that person may not be truly converted. Consider Hebrews 12 - that Jesus endured the Cross because of the joy set before Him, and that joy was rooted in a redeeming love that would save us. When we get this, our affection for Jesus naturally grows.
I use the term affections purposefully because the word love today is so often misused. Love can tend to be seen as an emotional response, and while affections do involve the emotions, I use this term to mean so much more. The affections are deep, soul-felt realities, truths that we know deep inside (what Paul would say we [in Greek] 'epi-gnosco', we know it at a guttural-level). This is why Paul prays this prayer for the church in Ephesus (click HERE for the chapter):
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches
of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit
in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may
be filled with all the fullness of God.
in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches
of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit
in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may
be filled with all the fullness of God.
His prayer here is about knowing God more deeply, even knowing (in a soul-level way) the love of Christ that is humanly beyond knowing fully. If this doesn't resonate with us at all, we might find it worthwhile to examine our understanding of what the Gospel is and what it means to us.
3. The testimony of the Holy Spirit that we are children of God.
Romans 8:16 states is simply this way: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." I used to work with woman years ago serving together with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in New England. Her mother once told a group of us that when her daughter was young she would sometimes say that she knew something deep inside by saying, "Mom, I know it with my know-er." Cute, but also perhaps theologically accurate. For those who are born again (John 3) and who have the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), we have One who bears testimony within us that indeed we are children of God, adopted through the work of Christ on the Cross.
So how does one 'test' this? Well, in accordance with the 2 other ideas shared above, the testimony of the Spirit should be a confirmation. Is it possible to think that the Spirit is confirming your 'child of God' status when in fact you are not yet born again? Certainly. But if we combine all three of these tests, we are more likely to come to an accurate assessment of our spiritual state. But don't miss that there is a mysterious kind of 'knowing with your know'er', or perhaps more accurately 'knowing with The Knower' that speaks to our spirit a confirmation of our status. I encourage people to use this as a question for ourselves and for others - "Do I sense God's affirmation that I am redeemed and born again?" and "Do you sense God's affirmation that you are redeemed and born again?").
I close with this.
There will be wolves among the sheep.
There will be those who are misled into thinking they are born again when they are not.
But using these three tests can move us toward much greater assurance that we are indeed adopted children of God.
- tC
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