Search Ourselves

How do we know that we are true Christians today? Is there any way to tell? Does it have anything to do with how we feel in our heart? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" So how can we trust our hearts? We can’t.

So I now ask us to search ourselves, knowing that "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12

We must take a test and if we fail it we must repent and line our lives up with his Word. We must accept the chastisement if it hits us. Knowing this "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1st John 5:3

1.) You will love your enemies and pray for those that despitefully use you.

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" Matthew 5:43:44

2.) Many of your own family will be against you.

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Matthew 10:34-26

3.) You will forgive all that your brothers have done unto you because your Heavenly Father has forgiven greater sins of yours and not held back.

"Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Matthew 18:33-35

4.) You will esteem other Christians better than yourself.

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Philippians 2:3

5.) You will look not to your needs alone but also to the needs of others.

"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Philippians 2:4

6.) You will not walk in continual sin.

"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:" 1st John 1:6

7.) You will admit you are a sinner and confess yourself to Christ.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 1st John 1:8-10

8.) You will love your brothers in Christ.

"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." 1st John 2:9

9.) You will not love the world, you will not try to be like it.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1st John 2:15

10.) You will hate your life in this world.

"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." John 12:25

11.) The world will hate you.

"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:19

12.) You will be persecuted for his name’s sake.

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2nd Timothy 3:12

I hope you passed the test. If not, I hope you will quickly repent of your trespasses and not try to justify yourself by how you feel in your heart.

In closing, there certainly are many other signs that follow true Christians. Remember you are saved by grace and not by works but works will follow those who love Christ.

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26