15 Evidences of Genuine Faith—Part Five

For the past four months, I have been sharing with you the 15 evidences of genuine faith found in 1 John. John’s focus in his letter is found in the theme verse – 1 John 5:13. There is confidence for the believer in his faith. I love this letter because we live in a world full of uncertainty, but God’s Word, specifically John’s letter, gives us hope in knowing Christ and exercising genuine faith. Here are the first ten points shared in the last four blog posts.

1. Personal Acceptance (1:1-4)
2. Practical Fellowship (1:5-7)
3. Personal Purity (1:8-10)
4. Persistent Obedience (2:1-6)
5. Precious Brotherhood (2:7-11)
6. Prohibited Affection (2:12-17)
7. Powerful Association (2:18-23)
8. Precious Abiding (2:24-29)
9. Purifying Holiness (3:1-10)
10. Principled Love (3:11-23)

Let’s continue into 1 John 4 to see what these next evidences are.

"Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." 1 John 3:24-4:21

11. Particular Discernment (3:24-4:6)

John introduces a new topic here in this section of his letter – the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. There are not many truths in Scripture that thrill me more than studying the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. Maybe it is because I have experienced that wonderful ministry of the Spirit in my own heart, but this passage reminds us that discernment about the working of the Spirit in the life of a believer is another evidence of genuine faith. John warns the beloved in verse 1 to discern between the Spirit and the spirits in this world. There are so many false ideas and spirits in this world that seek to deceive us. So how do we know the right from the wrong in this area? John tells us that the litmus test of the validity of the spirit is Jesus Christ! Those who deny Christ’s incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection are exposing themselves as spirits of antichrist (4:2-3). John encourages believers that we can and have overcome these false spirits because of the work of the One who is in us (4:4) who is greater than any spirit in this world. Relying on the Spirit of God working in you and me is the secret to having this discernment and ultimate victory over sin! John finishes this section by describing again these differing spirits and helping us to make particular discerning judgments about them. Friend, are you listening to the Spirit of God and letting Him lead you or are you being drawn in by the worldly spirits? Remember the blessed truth of 1 John 4:4 – “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”

12. Perfecting Love (4:7-21)

This long passage is not hard to follow and has some great points of truth for us in John’s return to a subject we visited last month – Godly Love! In fact, I have marked the word love or a form of it in this passage no less than twenty-nine times in fifteen verses! I think the Lord is trying to tell us something about this perfecting love. Perfecting love is evidence of genuine faith in God’s Son. This love is a characteristic of our God (4:8). Because God is love, those of us who live in Him and fellowship with Him should demonstrate this love. “The absence of love is evidence that a person does not know God.”[1] God’s love sent His Son to appease His own wrath (to be the propitiation) for our sins. What greater love has anyone ever shown? An intimate relationship with God will produce love and that love will extend to one another (4:9-11). Friend, how is your love for others when compared to God’s love for you?
 
John makes an interesting statement in verse 12 – “No man hath seen God at any time.” According to God’s revealed Word, no person ever saw God in all His glory and lived to tell about it. So, is this just a random fact inserted here? Not at all. See, the way that God’s wonderful nature of love is revealed to all mankind is through the mutual love of believers. God’s love “lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”[2] And John goes on to point out that the mutual dwelling of the believer in God and God in the believer is achieved through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (4:13). What a wonderful Gift we have in the Spirit of God! Verse 14 tells us that being a witness of all this perfecting love is a testimony of what Father did when He sent Christ to save the world. Those who confess these truths will enjoy the pleasure of abiding in Christ (4:15-16).
 
These last few verses of this section really emphasize the boldness and confidence of the believer in his perfecting love when he stands before the Lord. This love will be complete and provide confidence for the believer on the judgment day. What a blessed thought that Christ wants us to come to Him with boldness and confidence! He is not trying to catch up doing wrong. He wants us to be complete before Him! There is no fear in going before the judge when we have done nothing wrong! Perfect love drives out fear. Christ loved us perfectly, and that love should drive us to love Him and others in the same way (4:18-19). John explains once again in the last verses of this section what this love should and shouldn’t look like (4:20-21). The question for us remains – how does my love stand up against God’s perfect love for me?
 
Do you find strength and encouragement in knowing that God loves you perfectly? Do you dwell in the beauty of the ministry of the Spirit of God in your life? Or are you struggling in your relationship with Him because there are some areas of faith that aren’t so genuine? Friend, run to Christ in this moment and find His unchanging love for you and sweet fellowship with the precious Holy Spirit today.

One more chapter of this letter to finish this series. I hope you will take some time to test your faith, not because of anything I have said but because of the truths in God’s Word. May your faith find great confidence and indisputability that it never knew before.

How is your faith holding up to these next checks of genuineness?

[1] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge
​Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 898.
[2] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 899.

Read 15 Evidences of Genuine Faith—Part Six.