The doctrinal, social and moral tests below are distilled from notes I took when sitting under the preaching of pastor Wayne Sutton of Sharpsville, PA, http://fbcsharpsville.org/.
He spent several months preaching through 1-3 John. I distilled my notes to a single note card for my own personal reference. Hopefully you will find the points helpful in your own Christian walk. (I supplemented those points from various sources.)
DOCTRINAL TEST:
*** Jesus is the holy Son of God; I am a sinner.
Biblical doctrine can be applied to any matter in question: the statement above derives from doctrines of Christ, God and man. It may seem to be a simple statement, but the most basic point expressed is that God is holy, separate from His creation, unique, superior….
Religious systems from the east e.g., believe that man contains a divine spark; that God and man are made of the same stuff; such beliefs are unbiblical and must be rejected according to the apostle John’s truth test.
This point requires familiarity with Bible doctrine. If one has read through the Bible and doesn’t really know what it’s doctrines are, then a valuable resource for learning doctrine is the Westminster Confession of Faith with scripture references, or some other version of it, such as the WCF for study classes by G.I. Williamson. Other confessions exist, e.g., the Heidelberg Confession of Faith.
In Confessions, Bible doctrines are set forth and explained; scripture references enable one to see the various parts of scripture from which these doctrine derive. These are invaluable for the Bible student–we are all called to be theologians / students of the Bible.
SOCIAL / RELATIONAL TEST:
***Do I love my brothers and sisters in Christ with agape, self-sacrificing love?
***Do I desire to be around God’s people?
We should love because God is love; because it is evidence of new life. (If I don’t love, then I hate.)
I recently heard a preacher state that God is love, but His holiness is His most prominent attribute. He commands that His followers also be holy, they can be so via the forgiveness (mercy and grace) offered in the gospel; and by the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives.
Another important point I just read in Knowing God, by J.I. Packer, chapter 21, is that new Christians are expected by God to grow in grace. Packer was discussing adoption, and he compared a newborn Christian to a newborn in a loving family. He said that the new parents shower love on the infant and have no expectations of it, as it is incapable of meeting any. But when that child becomes a toddler, a teen…, he will have many expectations placed on him by parents…(I am paraphrasing).
Packer noted that God does a similar thing with new Christians. As they begin to grow from feeding on His means of grace, He begins to send afflictions…into their lives to conform them to the image of Christ.
Packer emphasized that when a Christian begins to experience afflictions and suspects that something is wrong with his walk because he has lost his initial joy, then he may be thinking wrongly about his situation because it is natural for the Christian’s walk to become more difficult, for him to begin experiencing failures…. A better question to ask himself might be, “What is God attempting to teach me?” –Again, I am paraphrasing, but I wanted to state this crucial point, because I am certain it is a problem that all thoughtful Christians experience.
Therefore, the Christian will begin to encounter suffering, opposition, health conditions…to enable his faith, trust and dependence upon God to grow; and to separate him from the world and instill heavenly longings.
That is, no born-again Christian will spend his entire Christian life basking in God’s love, joy…affliction free. (If your Christian life has been that, then something is wrong. Do you practice self-observation, self-examination? Do you regularly read scripture and pray? Have you ever read through the Bible? Are you certain that you are a sinner? Do you believe the biblical doctrine of sin? If you answered “No” to all or most of those questions, then it might be that your faith is not real.)
Another related point I have heard numerous preachers state: if a Christian is not growing, then he is backsliding. There is no such state as remaining at limbo, staying in the same place, when one is not striving to grow.
MORAL TEST:
***Am I keeping the commands of God, living a moral life? That is, am I walking in the light?
One must know the Bible to be able to assess himself in terms of these tests. Also, one needs to practice self-observation, self-examination; and meditation on God’s word.
A REASON ONE MIGHT FAIL TO MEET ONE OR MORE OF 1 JOHN TEST CRITERIA:
The apostle John identified false teachers as those who taught that one could be righteous without living a righteous life, such as the gnostics (we will also point out a few other false teachers whose followers could not be living according to the above points):
GNOSTICISM: Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises.
First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.
Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means “to know.” Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plane of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God. (gotquestions.org) (See categories, Christian yoga and meditation for more information.)
Gnostic Christians did not believe they had to live holy lives in the physical realm because only the spiritual realm is real; therefore, they could partake in gross sins and still be holy spiritually.
In the recent series on Paganism, Carl G. Jung was a gnostic. He also practiced yoga and eastern meditation, the latter seems to be an inherent part of gnosticism because via the encounter with an unknown spirit guide, one acquires said secret spiritual knowledge (demonic lies, according to posts on yoga).
If you read that series, then you know that his beliefs led him and his followers into a state of (as any biblical Christian would describe) moral debauchery; moreover, those currently following his teachings are still plummeting the depths of lasciviousness while they believe they are progressing spiritually.
PROSPERITY PREACHERS: they do not teach the Bible and its doctrine; it seems that they expend every effort to twist the Bible so that they might do as Jude indicated in His epistle: Jude 1:11 What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion. (Cain’s story is in Genesis 4; Balaam and Korah’s stories are in the book of Numbers.)
ECUMENISM: all who practice ecumenism strive for unity to the extent that they are highly motivated to throw out everything that divides: “doctrine divides,” is their chief mantra. The seeker-friendly, pragmatic, emergent churches are all in this category of false teachings (see, categories, Mysticism, The false gospels of Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Brian Mclaren and Steve Chalke–surveyed by Dr. Gary Gilley).
The bottom line is that if you do not know, understand and follow the Bible and its teachings and doctrines, then you are in a false system of worship. The Bible is the guidebook for Christians: not any man; tradition; man’s opinions….
(Do you know any highschool or college graduates who never bought textbooks or attended lectures, but graduated by hanging out at school / college? I don’t either! The Bible is the text in which all born-again believers must abide; love; follow; obey…. If you are rationalizing your own neglect of God’s means of grace, then you are deceiving yourself; that )
ANOTHER REASON ONE MIGHT FAIL TO MEET 1 JOHN CRITERIA IS SELF-DECEPTION: abiding in God’s appointed means of grace; and attending a church that preaches the Bible would certainly be of aid in removing self-deceptive beliefs. Many 21st century churches do not preach the Bible. Again, you must know the Bible before you can evaluate whether or not it is preached at your church.
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
***Read through the Bible and plan to do so yearly
***Download the free Bible software, e-Sword at esword.net as it contains a dozen or more versions of the Bible, a half-dozen of each Bible commentaries and dictionaries; furthermore, Strong’s concordance of Greek and Hebrew words with the KJV is one of those Bible translations. Therefore, you can more easily evaluate the preaching at your church.
***Read some of the books on the only book list I posted, see categories, Christian books: for example, I listened through J.I. Packer’s Knowing God this past week via the Christian Audio app on my iphone, it is possible to do that while archery hunting; doing mundane chores…. The Audible app functions much better than the Christian Audio app. Audible’s e-books are more expensive however. I have also found the Kindle app on my phone to be useful while waiting at doctor’s appointments…
***Study Helps on this site offer various means of assistance (see categories, study helps)