A L M A C I A S

ARE WE BORN OF GOD?

The Scriptures teach us to examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). We should never take it for granted that all things are right between us and the Lord. It is possible for us to think that we are being faithful Christians when, in fact, we are not. In the first epistle of John, the apostle wrote certain things which help us to know how we can be sure that we are being the kind of people we are supposed to be in the Lord. We read in I John 5:1-4, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 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 grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." What are some of the things we can learn from this passage of Scripture that would assure us that we are being the kind of people that we need to be in the Lord?

We need to understand some of the things the apostle John was not dealing with here and then see what things he was considering here. First of all, John was not addressing this letter to just anybody; he was addressing it to the brethren. It is important that we understand this so that we will not misunderstand what was being said. Had John been addressing just anybody, then some could say that all one needs to do to become a child of God is to believe that Jesus is the Christ. John was not concerned, in this instance, with what was required for someone to become a child of God, but rather he was dealing with how someone could know that he was a child of God. Since there were some false teachers who were denying that Jesus was the Christ, John wrote this to combat that false teaching. As for knowing that one was a child of God, John said that the following conditions were to be met. One needed to believe that Jesus was the Christ, and one was to love God and those who were begotten of God, His children. One can show his love for God by keeping His commandments, and one of those commandments is to love one another. When we love the brethren, we will never try to do that which is destructive to our brethren, but rather only that which is constructive. Are we born of God? We can know this by what the apostle John wrote in this passage of Scripture.