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The Bible teaches that the mark of a genuine Christian is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within shining as light out of darkness from that Christian’s life. This happens quite naturally because the unique, superior nature and character of life embodied in the triune God radiates outward as the sun’s light and heat. Of the foremost display of the divine presence and life in genuine Christians is love. Impostors are not able to love God or others as commanded because they do not have the Holy Spirit and the love of God within them. The Holy Spirit leads me to explore the matter more fully in this re-titled and edited 2013 blog repost to help us discern true Christians.
Originally Posted January 13, 2013
It is not without superior, unimpeachable purpose that the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews that was sympathetic toward Him, ‘“You must be born again,’” (John 3:7, NKJV). Spiritual new birth by the Holy Spirit is an absolute requirement for entry into the Kingdom of and intimate relationship with the triune God. Therefore, any person professing to be a Christian that has not been born again by the Holy Spirit--no matter how educated, credentialed or the length of time in a local church--is an impostor (Romans 8:5-9)!
Such being the case, I exhort every professing Christian reading this in the strongest possible terms to heed the counsel of the apostle Paul and examine yourself to see if you are truly “in the faith,” (2 Corinthians 13:5-6, NKJV). In all humility, check yourself for the vital signs of spiritual life that come through the new birth by the Holy Spirit. In the new birth, authentic believers in Jesus Christ are made “partakers of the divine nature” as He also prayed (John 17:20-23; 2 Peter 1:1-4, NKJV). The nature and life of God are brought into the authentic born again believer’s life through the exclusive agency of the Holy Spirit who is God (Acts 5:3-4)!
There are several attributes of the nature of God the apostle Paul calls “fruit” and that serve as vital spiritual life signs in the authentic born again believer. The fruit of His presence is not created, but is the natural reality and display of His Person dwelling in the authentic born again believer (Galatians 5:22-23). Since they are of the nature and life of God, it can be accurately stated that “God is” before each fruit of the Holy Spirit the apostle lists in the well known Galatians passage cited and elsewhere such as Ephesians 5:9. Indeed, the apostle John writes, “God is love” because God uniquely in nature is love (1 John 4:8, NKJV).
The love of God is exceedingly greater than and distinct from fallen, sinful human love. While human love by divine design is modeled on and intended to be a full expression of God’s love, because of sin in us it is a corrupt, inferior imitation. For example, we that are authentic born again believers know from God’s Word and experience in His company that He loves unconditionally (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-8). We, on the other hand in the natural man of the sinful flesh, love very conditionally based on the other person’s performance and reciprocation. Moreover, the apostle Paul gives a brief description of God’s kind of love in contrast to human love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.
Paul teaches God’s love is longsuffering, kind, forgives keeping no accounts, rejoices in the truth, bears, believes, hopes and endures all things; does not fail! Human love in contrast, however, is often impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, rude and selfish, easily provoked and offended, keeps records of wrongs in bitterness, revels in perversion and fails miserably. Also, human love is very often confused with sentimentality and lust. Clearly, when it is said the Lord Jesus has commanded Christians to love each other, it is not intended for us to do so with human love. He says in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” (NKJV).
The new command of Christ completely fulfills and exceeds the Law which says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, NKJV) since He loved by voluntarily laying down His own life in the cause of saving rebel sinners and enemies; the innocent for the guilty (Romans 5:6-11). In our sinful thinking, to love a neighbor as much as we love ourselves is next to impossible since we are born selfish. So, to love even my brother in Christ as He loved me in unconditional, sacrificial self-denial is beyond impossible in human love. Thus, Christ gives His new commandment with the understanding that only His born again followers would be able to carry it out through the exclusive agency and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5)!
Impostors in the flesh cannot love either God or a supposed Christian brother with divine love because they are devoid of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason the apostle John is so brutally direct in his Holy Spirit inspired teaching on the subject of Christians loving each other (1 John 2:3-11; 3:10-24, 4:7-21). Divine love for one another actualized by the Holy Spirit is not only a commandment of our Lord, but it is the one and only authenticating sign He gave by which all (believers and the world) would recognize His genuine disciples (John 13:35). The Christian life is a supernatural life!
Hence, the unique calling card of born again believers as witnesses and ambassadors of God in the earth is the divine love filling our hearts by the Holy Spirit and tangibly seen in its display with one another (Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Colossians 3:12-14). Every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ is a genuine Christian marked by the Holy Spirit and displaying the resulting vital life signs of the new birth through Him including the fruit of divine love.1
1 Get my book The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn more about the fruit of the Spirit. It is available at any major internet bookseller and at the Strong Man Store on our Web Site, www.thestrongmanofgod.org.
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