How You Know You Are A Christian

Ken

You are what you are in the present. Not because of what you did in the past or will do in the future. John said that we know that we know Him because we are obeying Him. “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1John 2:3 KJV). In other words, when we are obeying Him, we know that we know Him. The opposite is true, when we are not obeying Him, we are not knowing that we know Him. Spiritual testimony and intellectual testimony are not necessarily the same. The head can lie to the heart, but the heart will never lie to the head. 

People call themselves Christians based upon an intellectual remembering of past events reinforced by their emotions. When their actions cease to be Christlike, their emotions refuse to let go of their claim to being a Christian. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (2:4). In other words, anyone who claims to know Jesus Christ, while not obeying Him, is a liar. Later, John reminds us, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). 

Total Recall (2012) [Colin Farrell not Arnold Schwarzenegger] is a sci-fi movie about a dystopian earth where memories can be implanted in your mind. Hauser (known also as Douglas Quaid) has an important conversation with Matthias (the Resistance leader) two-thirds of the way through the movie. Matthias gives advice to Hauser (1:58:19/38:41 left). 

Hauser: I want to remember. 

Matthias: Why? 

Hauser: So I can be myself, be who I was. 

Matthias: It is each man’s quest to find out who he truly is, but the answer to that lies in the present, not in the past, as it is for all of us. 

Hauser: But the past tells us who we’ve become. 

Matthias: The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it. But the heart wants to live in the present. Look there. You’ll find your answer.