And who is a genuine child of God?

At risk of being told I’m not supposed to judge, I’m going to describe how to tell if someone is a Christian or not. In the past month, I’ve interacted with people who say they are and I just knew that it was true, and with people who said that they are, but I really doubted it.

Jesus told His disciples that the criterion was our love for one another. In John 13, He washed their feet as an example of how they should serve each other, then said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (34-35)

Years ago the leader of a mainline denomination told me that he believed he was a Christian because he loved other people. His ministry involved helping the poor, caring for the downtrodden. As commendable as that is, he didn’t display even respect for those who claim to be children of God by faith in Jesus Christ and through the process of regeneration or new birth. He felt that being born was not necessary and mocked those who thought otherwise.

My question then became, How do I know that I love God’s people? Is it a mushy sentiment? A warm feeling? A life of sacrifice for the needy? What did Jesus mean when He said, “. . . as I have loved you . . . ?” His love involved healing the sick, feeding the multitudes, and ultimately death on a cross, but it also involved washing dirty feet. What does He expect of me?

The entire book of 1 John offers several tests for genuine faith. It talks about a Christian’s attitude toward sin and toward the world. It talks about the ability to recognize and defeat the enemy, Satan. It also tells me how to know if I love other Christians.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Obedience to God is the measure of my love for Him and for His people, yet this is not a rule-keeping kind of obedience where a list is hung on the wall and if I do that every day, then I am obeying God and consequently loving His children. The key to obedience is the statement that His “commandments are not burdensome.”

Keeping rules gets old fairly fast. Even if they are not burdens, this type of living certainly becomes stagnant and wearisome to the body and soul. It was to people caught in this ‘work’ that Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Truly obeying God is a delight, not a burden, because it is done in the context of a love relationship. Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son (or it can be said He is God the Son) have an intimacy with God unknown to those who approach God with their works and their desire to do good things for other people. This intimacy gives Christians a motivation and inner strength that rests in Him and yet can overcome the world.

The “world” that John writes about is not a reference to people who don’t like Christians or who oppose goodness, nor is it all the trials and tribulations that plague this planet. Instead, it is an attitude of the heart toward things that are not eternal, things not from God. John describes this in 2:15-17.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

This lust of the flesh is my desire to please myself, make myself comfortable, make myself feel good without any consideration of what that might cost someone else. The lust of the eyes is about having stuff and power. It is looking at what the world can offer me and going for it. The pride of life is obvious; it is me wanting to be the top banana, the best, the most important. It is egocentric and not at all like Jesus.

The love of the world can show up even in so-called Christian service. I can serve myself in the name of serving the Lord. I can serve my reputation, my ego, my sense of well-being. This is not from God, yet it can mask itself very well, and the only way to overcome it is having a life-transforming, genuine faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

All that being said, people can know they love other God’s people by measuring their obedience, not to rules but to the prompting of the Holy Spirit with whom they know intimately. Today God might ask me to call another believer. He has already nudged me to write a letter to someone. These are not the rules written in a book, but His commands spoken directly to my heart from His heart.

Note too that this criterion involves loving God’s people. While God makes it clear that I’m to care for the poor and needy, the love that identifies me as His child is love for His other children. While He created everyone, not everyone can call themselves a child of God. John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

We love each other because Jesus lives in each of us and His love becomes our motivation and attitude. My devotional reading today sums it up. The child of God is one who overcomes, yet we cannot do it by our own power. I need Jesus Christ to love and obey God and thus love His people. It says:

If we are to be saved . . . we must have a faith that shall triumph over death and hell and gain a glorious conquest over every internal and external and infernal foe. . . . we must either conquer or be conquered; we must either . . . be crowned with an immortal crown of glory, or else sink in the strife, defeated by sin and Satan. But none of God’s people will be defeated in the fight . . . faith will sooner or later gain the day, for Jesus is its finisher as well as its author. . . . He will never suffer His dear family to be overcome in the good fight of faith, for He will give strength to every weak arm and power to every feeble knee, and has engaged to bring them off more than conquerors. . . . the Spirit is pleased to work in the soul by His living energy. . . .

In the end, God knows those who belong to Him. True Christians overcome sin, the world, the flesh and the devil, not because we are special or strong in ourselves, but because God lives in our hearts and gives us a deep love for Him, a love that fully surrenders to the One who gave it, and is therefore able to love His people and conquer anything that opposes us.