“If you love me, obey my commandments. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.”
John 14:15, 21, 23-24 NLT
How do we know if we’re truly in Christ? The Bible speaks plainly on the subject. It’s not vague; it doesn’t vacillate. The Lord isn’t merely our Savior…we must be reminded that He’s the Lord too. And we aren’t to become careless and arrogant toward the commandment of the Lord. It’s rather common to say that because we’re not under the law, but under grace, that Jesus is like a cosmic Santa Claus…a wimpy and sentimental sap. On the contrary, He’s the Lion of Judah. Hear again what He says to His people:
“When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
John 15:10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.10.NLT
But what commandment is this? How are we to know what’s expected – and demanded – of us? It’s a critical question, I’m sure you agree. Well, the Lord tells us plainly.
“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”
John 15:12 NLT
Nothing vague there. Just plain and perspicuous.
“You are my friends if you do what I command.”
John 15:14 NLT
More still in case we’re confused:
“You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:16-17 NLT
So, the commandment that we love each other (especially those inside the church…a special bond of brothers and sisters in the Lord) is a moral absolute. And there’s clear evidence of whether or not we’re obeying Him. This is the acid test that Christ Himself lays down for us in order to evaluate ourselves.
Karl Popper thought that one of the great signs of pseudo-science is that it can’t be falsified. In other words, it evades accountability; there’s no hill it will die on. For example, before a big eclipse last year, scientists told us that the event would happen at a specific time and place. It came to pass and, therefore, they passed the test. A pseudo-science, like all other false things, seeks ways to avoid the tests of accountability. A false Christian is, therefore, an unloving one. And how are we to test whether we’re truly obeying the Lord – indeed, if our love is true – or not? Well, the Bible gives us the tests of true discipleship.It teaches us how we’re to act toward others and, critically, how false believers will act. To be truly in Christ is to love others in Christ and obey Him in regard to issues of conflict. To disregard His commandment as to how we’re to respond to the sins of others is to jettison the faith. We may not in any regard classify something as sin unless He says it is in His holy word/law. And then, if there’s sin, we must act according to Scripture. False believers routinely ignore this process.
Furthermore, Scripture provides us with the means of knowing whether an accusation – a real sin – is, in the main, a true or false claim. Furthermore, one of the great lessons from 2 Corinthians is that Christians and the church will be attacked in exactly the same way Paul was.
Or, being false believers, we’ll attack in the same way! This is the area where it’s easy to test ourselves! The passages ahead should be read carefully, humbly. Do we find ourselves in the line of Paul – and Jesus – weeping over others and yearning that they return to Christ? Or, on the other hand, do we backbite, slander, gossip, accuse, and nitpick others in order to get our way like Paul’s critics? Do we, in the end, fight for the cause of Christ or for self? Who we truly love and worship will always show by both the manner in which we fight and the goal of the contest.
“I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!”
2 Corinthians 12:11-13 ESV
Bragging and boasting are, as we see, quite to the contrary of the Christian ethic. Thus, it makes sense to see the exercise as not merely folly, but wholly outside the accepted conduct of the Christian except in such extreme circumstances as these. What extremity are we speaking of exactly? Those engineered by Satan himself, planting tares amongst the wheat and causing the apostle to defend himself in order to save the souls under his care.
His apostolic bonafides were clear via the signs and wonders he worked in Christ – healings and truly miraculous things that authenticated his authority in Christ.
“Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”
2 Corinthians 12:14-15 ESV
False believers are always moving from one conflict to another in their lives. They naturally resist all authority. From this fact we shouldn’t conclude that no true Christians are caught in their sights. We must understand the difference between – and it’s a critical one – between an immature Christian and a false believers. The distinction can be found very much the way it can be in physical altercations.
Who is the one who brings the charge? What is the charge? Is it a clear sin? Are there witnesses and clear evidence (Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16)? And, don’t miss this, is the goal to tear down the other person or bring them to Christ via repentance and restoration? Paul’s critics want his authority for themselves. They don’t have a clear sin to accuse him of, only peccadilloes at best (so what if he isn’t the best speaker!). They have no witnesses for any charge and they aren’t attempting to bring him to repentance.
False believers in the church (or anywhere else they pop up) always follow this pattern. The battle they fight is to gain something for themselves, not a soul for the Lord. They don’t “spend for the souls” they contend with as Paul does. No! They seek to obliterate those poor souls via backbiting, slander, gossip, and false accusations. They play the judge. They use words as weapons to assault and it’s always about their rights, what they’re owed, and what’s been done to them.
The believer is seen through this not responding with counter-fire, but with self-defense as Paul does. Paul merely loves them and pleads with them for their salvation. If you find yourself such a target, it’s indeed a dreadful thing, but know that Christ has gone this way before you. You’re in excellent company. In your grief, in the misery and darkness that threatens you when the Enemy’s agents attack, stay in prayer…stay in worship…seek the counsel of those who have run the race longer than you.
“But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?”
2 Corinthians 12:16-18 ESV
They’ve accused him – and Titus too – of deceptively taking advantage of them. Paul calls this out because it’s absurd. He clearly and courageously brings the case to the whole congregation. There are no whispers and gossip as is always the case with false believers. No politics behind the scenes. This is how we can always see the truth of the matter! God’s people will always be open and transparent. And when they criticize, they do it in God’s ordained way (Matthew 18:15-20), only over a real sin, and only for the purpose of bringing the sinner to repentance.
James Boice writes about Korah’s Rebellion in Numbers 16:1-40. We note that we aren’t told exactly when in the 40 years of wandering this took place – either late or early. What we want to note is the pattern between the challenge to Moses (and Aaron) as well as to Paul. This is the pattern we see even in our day.
“Korah’s complaint wasn’t honestly expressed. He began by suggesting that he was quite a democratic individual. All the Israelites were set apart as holy; all he wanted to do was preserve their rights. Most rebellions begin with revolutionaries saying that they’re on the side of the people and want everybody to be free, when what they really want is to assume power for themselves. That was precisely what Korah wanted, and that was what Moses was responding to. Korah wanted to get rid of Aaron and be the priest in his place.”
First, like with Moses and what happened previously with Aaron’s sons (being killed for their strange fire episode), Paul’s mighty signs and wonders had been forgotten by his critics within the Corinthian church. Sin has a short memory of God’s many blessings. Let us beware…and let us take care to rehearse, not hurts or disappointments lest we fall into the Devil’s trap, but God’s innumerable gifts to us. Let us praise Him and thank Him always. Thankful prayer and praise builds a high wall around our hearts that sin’s arrows can’t penetrate. False believers grumble and complain about others and life because they despise God’s sovereignty over them. They see themselves as victims, not sinners.
Two, Moses pointed out that by challenging him, they were challenging God. It’s the same here. God will justify…and He will judge. We must not be careless in our relationships, for the Lord is holy, holy, holy. He is a consuming fire and an avenger of wrongdoing. Many are those who blithely assault the peace of God’s church over trivial matters. Many are those who sue for divorce – tearing apart what God has brought together – due to flimsy grievances. God’s children fear Him and seek His will in their lives, even when it hurts. False believers fear no one and want their will above all else, no matter who gets in the way. Challenges to those God has put in authority, or to the structures He has ordained in life, must only be done along biblically and for the goal of restoration of His order, not personal gain. This is not “my church” or “your church!” It is the church of the living God!
Third, watch how the complaints always twist the facts. Moses was accused of bringing the people out of a land “flowing with milk and honey.” Paul is accused of taking advantage of the Corinthian church. False believers have hardened hearts. They grumble and complain no matter where they are. The putrid fruit of the false believer is bitterness, not the love of Christ. Once again, we note carefully that the Christian, in any challenge, is the self-defender and seeks reconciliation in Christ. The false believer never follows the biblical commandments for conflict and church discipline. They seek their own way, not God’s.
Thus, let us be warned…and be humbled.
“And Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own. If these men die a natural death, or if nothing unusual happens, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord does something entirely new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have shown contempt for the Lord.” He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned. So they went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished from among the people of Israel.” Numbers 16:28-33 NLT
God’s people will love their neighbors in the manner He has prescribed. False believers are seen for how they refuse to follow His commandments – especially in regard to issues of authority and conflict.
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