The Evidence of a True Christian

Dear Readers around the world! God’s Peace and Blessing to you. We are living in the days of the King! The King is the Lord Jesus Christ! Glory be to God!

This week, I come to you with a prayer request. Myself and a group of 5 other Christians will be leaving on Sunday for a three week mission trip. Please pray for this journey, for health and safety for all. Please pray that the Word of God would be preached in truth and purity and that God would be glorified during this time that is made possible through His Grace.

If some issues of this weekly blog get missed, it is because I am out in the Mission field and may not be able to write or post issues. Today our article is written by Pastor Wayne Juntinen. Please enjoy!

May God Bless your week! John



The Evidence of a True Christian

Many call themselves “Christians.” Being called a Christian began at Antioch. Paul had been preaching and teaching there for a whole year. And people who were not believers in Christ began to call these disciples, or learners, “Christians” (Acts 11:26) because the Holy Spirit, through the preaching and teaching of Paul, gave these hearers who responded to the Word of God the grace to believe in the crucified and resurrected, Man-God, Jesus Christ, as their Savior and Lord.

This change in the spirit of these disciples is the evidence of being true Christians. We all, if we call ourselves “Christians”, have this inner testimony. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in his epistle to the Romans saying: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Ro. 8:16).

This witness of the Holy Spirit within us works in our mind, will and emotions. We have the mind of Christ (2 Cor. 2:16). But because we are still real humans who still have a fallen nature, we do not always live in obedience to the will of God. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans that by the mercies of God we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Ro. 12:2).

The Holy Spirit, also, works in our will. But in order that we would do what God wants us to do and not do what he does not want us to do, even if it might be something good, we are to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Read Galatians 5:16-26. Thanks to God there is forgiveness for us when we sin, but we don’t have to sin. God, the Holy Spirit, works within us both to will and to do his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

And as we live in obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, our emotions are also affected. We have an inner joy. In fact, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh. 8:10). Furthermore, we have an inner peace; a peace that passes understanding. It is the peace that Jesus, Himself, gives (Jn. 14:27). It is a peace that cannot be taken from us (Jn. 16:22), even though we go through suffering, sorrow, and want.

All of this points to the greatest truth in all world--that God loves us! And it is this love that is to flow out of us as the external, or outward, evidence of being a true Christian. Jesus, Himself, said: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (Jn. 13:35).

The Apostle John, in his first epistle confirms this by saying: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God” (1 Jn. 4:7). This love towards one another is not merely in words, as John also writes: “My little children, let us not love in word neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 Jn. 3:18).

Our heavenly Father desires that our love would be a true expression of His love. Paul describes this as being “without dissimulation.” or “without hypocrisy” (Ro. 12:9). That means that it is an expression of love that is genuine. It has no selfish, self-centered motives, impure, or wrong reasons. It is a love of another because God loves him or her. We don’t love so we can get some benefit for ourselves because true love never loves to “get” but only to “give.”

Also, true love speaks “the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15); especially when sin needs to be brought into the light so it can be confessed and forgiven in the name and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 1:9; Jn. 20:23).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may the inward testimony of Christ living within you fill your hearts with righteousness, peace, and joy. And may the love of God flow out from you as a fountain of water to refresh and bless one another. Amen!