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Your
Question. One of these marks answers your question. Here it is,
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The
one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does
not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him, but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God
has truly been perfected. (NASB) 1 John 2:4-5 |
The
meaning of the Greek word for “keep” has the idea to
carefully and watchfully keep. It has the idea of wanting to keep
God’s commands and doing it carefully. The Greek tense of the
word “keep” is a present active participle. This means
a true Christian always wants to obey and faithfully keeps seeking
to obey. The passage says that a person can claim to be a Christian,
but if he/she has no desire to obey God and is not trying to obey
Him, then he/she has deceived himself/herself.
We can never know for sure that a person is a Christian;
but when his/her life has ongoing, unrepentant patterns of sin, there is reason
to be concerned that he/she is not real. Scripture is not kind towards those
who claim to be Christians and then live like someone who does not believe in
Jesus. Even the Apostle Paul had doubts about the Corinthians who claimed to
be Christians but were sinning in many different ways. Therefore, he encouraged
them to test themselves to see
if they were real.
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Test
yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do
you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--
unless indeed you fail the test? (NASB) 2 Corinthians 13:5 |
Conclusion: When
Christians are comfortable with sin in their lives then there is reason to be
concerned
that they are not real Christians. The truth is not found in what
they say. The truth is found in their pattern of life. A Christian who has an intimate
relationship with God will want to obey, to please God above anyone else
-
their family, spouse, or girl friend or boy friend.
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