Evidence of Your New Nature

Evidence of Your New Nature

1 John 2:3-17

John helps us understand how to have confidence that we truly know Christ. This isn’t about working for salvation—it’s about recognizing the evidence of new life in Him. If we are in Christ, we will follow His commands, grow in our spiritual maturity, love other believers, and forsake the sinful desires of the world. Faith in Jesus changes everything.

Main Idea: We can know we are in Christ by the way we relate to Him and to other Christians.

I. If You Are in Christ, Follow His Commandments

1 John 2:3-6:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

• Obedience to God’s commandments is evidence of knowing Him.

• Matthew 22:36-40:

'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'

1 John 2:9-11:

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

• Love for fellow believers is a vital sign of spiritual life.

II. If You Are in Christ, Remember Who You Are Becoming

1 John 2:12-14:

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

• John identifies believers at different stages: children (forgiven, know the Father), young men (overcome the evil one, strong in God’s Word), fathers (deep knowledge of God).

• John 17:17-19:

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

III. If You Are in Christ, Forsake the Things of This World

1 John 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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

• We must choose between loving God and loving the world.

• The world’s temptations are temporary; God’s will leads to eternal life.