Marks of a True Believer
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Good morning. Go ahead and grab your Bibles and head with me to 1 John chapter 5.
Has there been a time in your life when you spoke or acted in a certain way that as you did, you immediately think, “I’m just like my parents!”
There are certain characteristics in our lives that just identify us with our families. Whether it’s the way you laugh or smile. The way you talk or act in awkward situations. The way you joke around. There are numerous things in our lives that point us to who we belong to.
That’s essentially what the apostle John is getting at here in chapter 5. A true believer is going to have certain birthmarks in their life if you will, that give evidence of who they truly belong to.
I mean, throughout this letter, John has been basically repeating himself over and over again trying to stress this point. That a true child of God, someone who truly belongs to God will have obvious pieces of evidence in their life that affirms what a person says.
The churches John was writing to were riddled with false teachers.
How do we identify false teachers out there? How do we know we belong to God? How do we know that he is our love, our King, our delight, our joy? This is the letter of 1 John. And in this final chapter, he’s helping us identify who we belong to and why.
Let’s read starting in verse 1 (1 John 5:1-5), “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
John here identifies three marks of a true believer. Three characteristics point to the truth that we belong to God.
So, three words to remember. Believe. Love. Obey.
Mark #1. A true believer is one who believes rightly about who Jesus is.
Christianity centers around the person and work of Jesus. Specifically, who he is and what he has done.
It’s why every single week I stand before our church and talk about Jesus. Because, if I’m not talking about Jesus then I’m not talking about Christianity.
If I’m not pointing to the one person who loves you despite your failures and shortcomings and how you can find freedom and forgiveness and eternal life in the person of Jesus, then all I’m doing is trying to inspire you to live better lives through simple moral actions and positive thinking. You don’t need me for that.
That does nothing for your soul. It only makes you feel better for a moment. When the weight of the world is on you and crushing you, what you need at that moment is not positive thinking, you need a Savior.
(hospital rooms)
Jesus is the center of our faith. It begins with him. It centers around him.
Look again with me at the first part of verse 1 (1 John 5:1a), “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”
Look at verse 5 (1 John 5:5), “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
So, those who truly belong to God believe that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.
Two things very quickly here.
1. Salvation is offered to “everyone.” No one is excluded. God is saving a people from every race, every nation, every tribe, and every language. No one is outside the reach of God’s amazing grace. And no one is beyond the need of God’s mercy and grace. Meaning this, we’re all in need.
2. Salvation is not tied to a one-time event in history but an ongoing continuous action. When John says, “everyone who believes,” he’s stating that being born of God is tied to a continuous belief in Jesus.
John’s saying our hope is tied to the continuing belief in Jesus for our salvation.
So, a simple way of stating it here for us to maybe understand better could be that when someone asks you why you are a Christian, your response isn’t, “well because I prayed a prayer when I was five,” but rather, “I’m a Christian because I’m trusting in Christ for my salvation.”
Now, that may have begun when you were five, and praise God for that. But if there’s nothing in your life right now that is revealing the truth that Jesus is Lord, I think John here would say, “Hold on a minute. Somethings not right.”
Because the mark of a true believer is one who IS BELIEVING that Jesus is the Christ, in verse 1 and that Jesus is the Son of God in verse 5.
I love what Charles Spurgeon says here, he says, “The faith intended in the text evidently rests upon a Person – upon Jesus. ‘Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.’ It is not belief about a doctrine, nor an opinion, nor a formula, but belief concerning a Person.”
If the confession of your mouth and the continuous belief in your heart is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God then you have been born of God. This is the assurance that John seeks to point us to.
But if you’re sitting here today and you would say in all honesty, “That’s not what I believe. That’s not where my hope is.” Then today is the day to believe. Believe Jesus is who the Scriptures say he is. Turn from your sin, repent, and believe this good news. Find eternal life and joy today in Jesus.
Mark #2, and we’ll hit these last two a lot quicker, is that a true believer loves God and loves the church.
End of verse 1 and verse 2 (1 John 5:1b-2), “And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.”
If there’s one thing you should be picking up from John is that he repeats himself a lot throughout this letter. But not because he’s trying to fill up the page, but because it matters.
What matters to God is that we love him. A desire for him, a pursuit of him. Our determination, work ethic, tenacity, and personality are wonderful things. But God is after our love for him.
I have a couple of kids. Let’s say, twenty-five years from now my son is a world-renowned doctor who’s discovering cures for all kinds of diseases and has a beautiful family and a great home, and he’s sought after for his skill and talents, he’s writing books right and left that are best-sellers, but he wants nothing to do with me. There’s no love, no pursuit of me, could care less.
His accomplishments are not going to be what matters most to me. What I want, as his dad, is for him to love me. I want a relationship with my children.
God desires those who love him. And a mark of a true believer, one who has been born again, is that there is genuine love and affection for God which then translates to love for others.
So, then the main point here has to be, “Do you love God?” Now, how can you tell? Well, Scripture helps us here too.
Jesus, in John 14 simply said (John 14:15), “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Our love for Jesus is most clearly seen in our obedience to his commands. To forgive others. To love your neighbor. To battle sin in your life. To make disciples. To guard against greed. To pray for the kingdom of God to advance. We spend time in his word.
Are you obeying his commands? Is your greatest delight in Jesus?
This is the mark of a true believer. In fact, it’s Mark #3, a true believer obeys his commands.
Verse 3 (1 John 5:3), “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandment. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
John Piper once said, “What you desire to do with your whole heart is not burdensome to do.”
(Kobe Bryant work ethic)
The word “burdensome” means “difficult to carry out” or “taxing.” Another way of defining it is that it defines anything that is “undesirably restrictive.”
Think of it as a weight hanging around you, slowing you down and making every step forward a pain and drudgery.
If Jesus is our treasure and our delight, then his commands are not a burden to us. In fact, the more that we see the reason and meaning behind the commands the more we see how each command actually leads us to life and joy and not away from it.
Here’s what’s happening here. God as the creator has the sovereign right to declare how life works best. We are his creation and in love, he has written for us in his Word, how life works best which leads to joy, not away from it.
It’s the same thing that loving parents, for the most part, seek to do in their homes when they lay our rules for their family. The family rules are not meant to oppress and dominate but the reason for them, even though kids usually can’t see them, is to create safety and order which then lead to a flourishing life.
God is a loving Father, who has created us and this world and has laid out commands which bring safety and order which if obeyed and followed, lead to a flourishing life.
The problem is, we’re sinners. So, we want to rebel. But John’s trying to lead us back to the joy and delight of being loved and known by God. And the more that we press into the Lord, the more we dwell upon who Jesus is and what he has done for us, the more we will love him, and the more then, we will desire and love to obey him out of delight.
You see, loving God rightly isn’t just an external behavior and outward obedience. It’s a longing from the heart to obey out of gratitude for who he is and what he has done.
John says we’re called to believe rightly, love God, love others, and obey. These are marks of a true believer. Herein lies our hope because we will fail at living these out perfectly.
Jesus has accomplished this all for us already through his perfect life and sacrificial death. Your hope is not and cannot be in your perfect living out of these commands.
But rather, your hope is in the recognition of where you fall short and your need for a Savior. You are loved by God, not because you obey perfectly, but because Christ, obeyed perfectly for you, laid his life down for you, and is now your representation and right-standing before God the Father.
You see that truth is the love of God displayed by which we rest and hope and find our being and from it now seek to obey.
God help us to believe, to love, and to obey.