Are You Born Again?

1 John 3:7-9

7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

John was known as the “Apostle of Love”, but he often sounds more like the “Apostle of Confrontation”. His style is to lay out the truth letting the chips fall where they may because he knows the truth is an absolute plumbline, which can rapidly determine the state of things and then call for compliance. When you think honestly about his subject matter you see where diluting or compromising has no place – eternal life or death is at stake. He would say that if he loved you he couldn’t soften things up in order to not hurt your feelings only to have you end up on the judgment end of the stick. So he gives an objective test to help you evaluate your relationship with God.

Do you practice sin or righteousness? Every one of us has sin living in his/her blood. Additionally, everyone who is born again has God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in his/her spirit. Sin and Spirit are at war for the control of the soul. The one you yield to determines what you practice – righteousness or sin. If you are born again you may slip and slide a bit, but in the end, you will practice righteousness because the seed of God is in you and it will not yield to sin forever, nor will it allow you to.

See, God has equipped you for a successful Christian life!