One of the questions we have been discussing and trying to answer in 1 John is “What is a Christian?” It’s 
more difficult to answer then it seems. Before you read any further I’d encourage you to jot something down on a piece of paper on how you would answer it if someone were to approach and to ask, or as I have just approached you and asked: What is a Christian? How would you reply?
This is what John’s readers would have been asking and what John was trying to teach them. It was a time that was prevalent with false teachers, leaders falling away from the church to teach a different doctrine. They taught that Christ never came in the flesh and that Christians were sinless. Believers both young and old were thrown into confusion unsure of what and who to believe anymore. They still struggled with sin, did this mean they were lost? They doubted their salvation and relationship with God. The weight of the question, how could they be saved and still sin, was tremendously heavy on their hearts. Was there any hope for them? Other respected Christian friends and leaders around them never doubted their salvation. They never seemed to struggle with sin much, not the way they did. Their sleep wasn’t disturbed by it. Their appetite wasn’t ruined by it. Their conscience and hearts weren’t being seared by it. They seemed to have this peace that was outside of their reach. Maybe it was their maturity. Maybe they had or knew something they didn’t. These believers were left wondering what their secret was. Was it something they were missing? What was wrong with them? Had they failed in their Christian faith? Or had God failed? Was the gospel ineffective for them? Maybe it worked for others, just not for them…they would just have to do the best they could and just hope they were good enough in the end. They would live without assurance, without peace, without the joy of knowing for sure. This gospel message, that a man named Jesus Christ died for their sins and rose again from the dead and that they too could have eternal life and forgiveness of sins if they believed and trusted in Him. It almost seemed too easy, too good to be true anyway.. and you know what they say about that…
This was a time not too different from ours, as we struggle with false teachers rising up from within the church and with our own struggle with sin when others seem to have it all together. I know you will find John’s assurance in this book extremely relevant and helpful, for this was the reason why he was writing to them. He was writing to give assurance and peace to those who were saved and to take away the assurance and the false sense of peace from those who were not.
Some of us need our assurance shaken up. We live in a day in age when 80% of regular church attendees are lost. Many are “notional” Christians. Their faith is not hung on Christ and His finished work, but on something else…their own feelings, their own opinions and fanciful ideas on who God is and what He would or would not do based on how they personally see him and would expect Him to act. They worship a safe, ideological God. A god who they made up in their imagination. A god who exists only in their minds. He is not the one true Living God who moves and interacts with His creation and is defined by nobody but Himself. The Living God, who is self-existent apart from us and needs nothing from us but continually seeks to reveal to us how good, how beautiful and how sufficient He is by showering us with His gifts and graces and promising to meet all our needs if we would only seek and trust Him. Many say they know Him, but there is a huge broken gap between what they claim and what they do.
50% is huge. This is worse then the swine flue epidemic when everyone rushed to be vaccinated against it. 50% is serious. On which side are we? Where do we land? It is a life and death question with endless consequences. Are we prepared to honestly seek the truth regardless of what it reveals? Are we self-deceived? If we are, then we must go outside of ourselves for evaluation and we must be humble and willing to listen and accept the results of the test whatever it may be. If we are found to be terminal there is treatment. We can be 100% cured and gain an intimate relationship with God and his Son Jesus Christ and confidence that we know Him. If we are found to be already truly saved, then we will be strengthened by knowing for sure and ridding ourselves of all doubt. We will be checked for weaknesses and can address them to strengthen our knowledge of Him. But if we choose to remain ignorant by burying our heads to the question, or by allowing our pride to raise us above the examination because of its utter ridiculousness and simplicity, then we have no hope. Ignorance kills.
John’s tests and examinations are simple, objective and effective. In a day of age when we love self knowledge quizzes and seeing what they reveal about us; when we are big on yearly self-examinations and preventative measures, I pray we would have the humility and courage to place ourselves under John’s examination and let God’s light shine into our hearts for a spiritual health check-up. No one likes tests and examinations much, especially when they are set to kill our narcissism instead of feeding it. But if we make the claim to be a Christian and that we know God then we must submit ourselves to this examination on a regular basis because it will save our lives and maintain our spiritual health. 2 Cor. 13:5 instructs us:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
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