There are many things in this life that we take for granted. We get so used to them, we hardly give them a second thought. But in some cases, taking things for granted can be disastrous.

If I am about to fly to another country, and I assume I have my passport somewhere with me without checking, it can mean I might be turned back and miss my flight. I could argue, “But I’ve flown before” or “I’ve used my passport many times” or “Ask my wife – she’s seen my passport!” None of those things will impress the immigration officials. Not bothering to check that I do indeed have my passport is a foolish, careless thing.

It is amazing that people will make sure they have their passport to another country, but few will make sure they have their passport, as it were, to another world. So many people take it for granted, they don’t even bother to check. They don’t take the Bible’s advice to make sure they are saved. The Bible commands us to do so:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

2 Corinthians 13:5

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

2 Peter 1:10

One assumes that one day their reasoning will be “I am a Christian. I’ve always been a Christian. I grew up a Christian. Ask my wife or husband – they know I am a Christian.” But heaven will not open to such excuses. Only those with eternal life will enter in.

So it is only right and fitting that people ought to earnestly make sure that they are saved. It is only sensible, in light of the eternal consequences, that man stand in front of the mirror of the Word, agree with what it says about Him, and submit to its commands. We cannot argue with the Bible. If it says we are unsaved – all the protesting in the world won’t change that. Instead, we must make the necessary changes.

1 John was written for this purpose: to let those who are saved identify eternal life within themselves and rejoice, and to let those who are not saved see their lack, and desire the genuine article. 1 John 5:13 summarises the whole book of 1 John when it says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Clearly, the book was written to give assurance to the saved, and conviction to the unsaved. All of us are convicted by the high standard John paints, but believers will recognise what he is talking about, while unbelievers will not. So you will either read 1 John and tremble, or you will read 1 John and rejoice. I personally believe the most frightening scene in the whole Bible is in Matthew:

Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works?’

And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’

Matthew 7:21-23

I cannot imagine anything more nightmarish than to believe I am saved, and to find out otherwise on the day of judgement. Yet Jesus tells us that many who will experience this: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able,” (Luke 13:24).

It’s my belief that many of the modern church’s problems revolve around the fact that pastors are very often trying to make goats act like sheep. Churches are filled with nice people who love church, love religion, love a good sermon, but they are not saved. They are not yet sheep. They are the unbelieving. And since they have not been regenerated, you cannot expect them to behave like sheep.

What we need is a return to a biblical preaching of the Gospel. We need to declare what it takes to be saved biblically, and what it means to be saved biblically. We must not water down the Gospel; we must not take away or add to salvation or sanctification. I believe churches are filled with people who think they are saved but are not, or who know they are not, but are too proud to admit it, or have just decided they don’t care.

Tragically, if you are wrong on this issue, the results are not a financial loss, or losing face, or losing friends. It means losing heaven – and going to hell.

1 John then is a book we need to study with diligence. We need to use it like a mirror – staring into it and comparing its statements with our own lives. Where we see deficiencies, we need to confess and obey. Where we see similarities, we need to rejoice and thank God. And where we see complete opposites, we need to make sure we are saved.

John defined eternal life for us in His Gospel, quoting the prayer of Jesus: “And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

Eternal life is coming into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Eternal life is a person: Jesus Christ Himself. It is when He comes in to dwell in us, and we are in Him. His life becomes our life. Since He is eternal, we by definition then have eternal life. But how do I know if this has taken place? John gives us the following tests.

1. The test of beliefs

The first test John applies to us is our beliefs. This is obvious because it is faith, or belief, that brings about salvation in the first place. John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” What does a person have to believe to have eternal life? 1 John 4:15 tells us: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”

We must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Being the Son does not mean that Jesus is less than God, or a creation of God. In the Bible, son often means ‘of the same kind.’ That is why John uses the words, ‘only begotten Son,’ because ‘begotten’ means of the same nature. Jesus is God. He is the Eternal Son of God – God the Son. If anyone believes that Jesus is less than God, or an exalted angel, or a great man who became like God – they are not believing in the Jesus of the Bible. They do not have eternal life.

Then, 1 John 4:2-3 says, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist…”

We must believe that Jesus is the Son of man. This is the title given to express Jesus’ humanity. Jesus was truly born of a virgin, and lived and died as a human. He was not some kind of spirit, as the Gnostics taught. He was truly a human. He had to be, to die for our sins. In order to be our substitute, He had to be human as well. To deny the humanity of Jesus is to deny the incarnation – and you then deny the possibility of salvation.

Next, 1 John 4:14 says, “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,” and 1 John 5:1 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” So we must believe that Jesus is the Saviour.

The word ‘Christ’ simply means Messiah. The Messiah was the chosen one of God. Chosen to do what? To announce God to us as a prophet, to atone for our sins as a priest, and to reign over us as King. Believing Jesus as Christ means believing He is the chosen One – the only way to be right with God. If you think Jesus is one of many ways – you don’t believe He is Christ. He is either the chosen One, or not. Christ is an exclusive claim to be God’s appointed One to save the world.

Now, we must answer this question: what does it mean to believe? In our day, the word ‘believe’ means something less than what John meant. We use believe to mean a certain kind of thinking. For example, if someone says, ‘Is so-and-so here?’ We might say, ‘I believe so.’ ‘Believe’ to us is almost a not-too-certain kind of affirmation. It’s like saying, ‘I think so’ or ‘It might be so’ or ‘maybe.’

Not only that, but in our culture, belief means only a mental attitude. We talk about our ‘beliefs’ and we mean a sort of philosophy. But this is not what John meant by ‘believe.’ He explains what he means in his gospel he wrote, with Jesus’ own words:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

I am that bread of life.

Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Then Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”

Jesus links ‘believe’ to eating and drinking. What’s the connection? When we eat or drink, we imbibe something into ourselves in order to survive and gain satisfaction. So, in the same way, believe is to take in or consume, as it were, the Person and work of Jesus to be the thing by which we survive, and are satisfied.

Belief is personal and practical. You cannot merely look at bread and be filled. You cannot merely agree that water is thirst-quenching. You must personally take it in. You must eat and drink, casting all your dependence upon this food and drink to satisfy you, to nourish you. And so to believe on the Lord Jesus is not to merely agree, ‘He is God, He is the God-man, He is the Saviour.’ It is to personally drink Him in, as He is.

If I’m believing in Jesus, I’m coming to a point in my life where I realise, ‘I have been eating and drinking many other things for satisfaction and spiritual life: money, popularity, materialism, philosophy, education, appearance, pleasure – but they are not the living bread and living water.’ So I abandon all that. I repent. I cannot eat and drink of the Lord Jesus and sin at the same time. There is a turning away from the old, and a turning to Jesus Christ.

If this is the case, I see more than ‘He is the Saviour’ – but that I need a Saviour, and ask Him to be mine, and drink and eat Him in as my salvation. I see more than ‘He is God’ – He is my God, I submit to Him as my Lord, as the One I will follow and obey. This is saving faith. This is what John means when he says ‘believe.’

Our churches are filled with unbelievers who ‘believe’ things about Jesus, but they are not believers. The question is – when did you eat and drink of the Lord Jesus in this way? You cannot say, ‘I basically agree with this. Why should I have had this event, this day, when I ‘received Christ?’ Because James says that if you don’t, your faith is dead.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:19-20

Eating and drinking is also a continual thing. A person who comes to faith will not just believe this once and then abandon it. They will believe this all their life. They will be eating and drinking of the Lord Jesus their whole life. They will continue to believe the truth, and will not be persuaded by false prophets and antichrists. They will not be deceived, because they are part of Christ’s sheep, and will not follow a stranger’s voice.

Even though believing continues all through life – it must begin somewhere, with the day you are saved, regenerated, born again. If you disagree with these truths about Jesus, you do not have eternal life. If you agree with these truths, but have never personally eaten and drunk the Lord Jesus as your God, and your Saviour – you do not have eternal life.

This is why John says: ‘He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son, hath not life” (1 John 5:12). It is not enough to know about Jesus – He must dwell within you by His Spirit. He also says “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13) and “hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us,” (1 John 3:24).

2. The test of behaviour

James goes to great lengths in his epistle to teach us that biblical faith produces biblical works. Not the other way around. You do not work to get saved, or work to get faith. But if you are saved, there will be fruit. If you eat and drink, there are physical results. And if you eat and drink of the Lord Jesus, there will behavioural results.

We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone. James 2:26 says: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” A faith that confesses Jesus, but then denies Him in practice, is not a faith that lived and then died – it was never alive.

When God regenerates, the life is eternal. It is a contradiction to speak of losing your salvation, because you are then speaking about eternal life being temporary. But if the life of God is within us, there will be noticeable results. There will be a conformity to His character.

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6) and “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:29) In other words, if Jesus Christ is now your life – if you have imbibed Him – His character will manifest itself in and through you. Not perfectly at first, but somewhat, and increasingly so as we grow.

A mark of eternal life within is when our thoughts, words, attitudes, motives, desires, plans, actions and relationships become increasingly changed to be unlike our old ways, and more like His ways. Christ inside us, and increasingly manifesting Himself outwardly, will mean we will love what He loves, and hate what He hates.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1 John 2:15-16

I cannot live in opposition to the life that is now mine for a sustained period of time. I cannot think the opposite, act the opposite, and live the opposite of my very life.

Yes, we can resist God. Yes, we can quench His Spirit. Yes, we sin and fail often. Yes, we can go through periods of backsliding and rebellion. Yes, we can grieve God with disobedience. But those will be bumps along the road for a true believer, in whom the life of God is increasingly purging out the old and bringing in the new.

If our lives are marked by nothing like Christ, nothing different from the world, no change and difference from how we were – then according to John, we have no reason to consider ourselves saved. In contrast, as 1 John teaches, a believer is practicing confession of sins to God, separation from sin, imitation of Christ.

One might say, ‘But I made a decision back in in year, and I was baptised, and you can’t tell me I’m not saved!’ That kind of thinking is deadly and dangerous. To depend on a supposed decision you made, when there is no fruit of your salvation, is not what the Bible says. It says, ‘make your calling and election sure. How? By checking that conformity to Christ is in your life.

It is like someone saying, ‘I have a nice plant in that pot.’ You look at just soil in a pot and say, “I don’t see anything.” They say, ‘Well, I planted a seed in there 20 years ago.’ ‘Yes,’ you say, ‘but there is nothing to show for it now. The seed apparently never germinated. Life never sprouted. There is no plant, no life, no fruit. You need to plant another seed.’ ‘No,’ they say, ‘I already planted a seed back then. What a lovely plant it is! I water it often, and give it much sunlight.’

That is like many people. They claim to have professed Christ at some point. But there is no fruit whatsoever. They do not care. They even give their profession water and sunlight by attending church and doing some marginally Christian things. But they refuse to admit what is clear to everyone else – regeneration never took place.

There is no eternal life abiding within them. Their life has never begun to reflect Christ. They have continued as before, with a smattering of moralising, and following some rules – but no change.

This is not works-salvation. Some tell you you must work to keep your salvation. That is not biblical. A tree does not have to produce fruit in order to stay alive. But as long as it is alive – it produces fruit. In the same way – if eternal life is inside us – there will be the outward sign of behaviour.

3. The test of belonging

John’s third test for eternal life is this: if you are in Christ – you have been baptised into His Body. His body is made up of many members. But once you are in that body, you love it. The eye does not despise the toe, nor does the liver hate the teeth.

If you have eternal life in you, you recognise the oneness you have with other Christians. You cannot have eternal life in you and consistently hate, or remain indifferent to, other Christians. Your oneness in Christ will be real and noticeable.

We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

1 John 3:14-15

You may struggle with bitterness. You may have conflict. You may really battle to love some Christians. But overwhelmingly, you will feel a desire to be with God’s people, or at the very least, a sense of needing to belong, and be involved. I struggle with the concept of a Christian who never fellowships. That is like a cell in the body, that is never inside the body.

A person with eternal life inside them recognises innately a fact – my relationship to God is inseparably bound up to my relationship with other Christians. I cannot divorce the two. I cannot imagine that I am a Christian if I care nothing for other Christians.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

1 John 4:20

In other words, how can you claim to love God, when the reflected image of God is actually distasteful to you? What God do you then love? In this age, He is seen in other Christians. If we despise other Christians, we despise Christ, however poorly they may represent Him.

Remember when Jesus spoke to Saul on the Damascus road? He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4). See, attacking Christians was an attack on Christ Himself. Loving other Christians is loving Christ. So if we hate other Christians continually, John is correct – the love of God does not abide in us. God does not hate Himself.

Love is a desire for their joy to be full. It means we will put ourselves to death to achieve this. If we totally lack this desire, it may be because the heart of Jesus for His own is not inside us.

Solomon applied this very test to find out who the true mother of a baby was. Both claimed to be the real mother, just like many people claim to be Christians today. But when Solomon suggested they physically cut the child in half, the true mother’s natural love took over, and she said, ‘rather let the other woman have him.’

The other woman said, ‘Sure, cut him in half, sounds fair’ – thereby betraying her lack of natural love – a true bond with the child. In the same way, Christians must have that natural, instinctive bond with each other. If a sword was brought out and death threatened, like that mother, our hearts should be in our throats, as a self-sacrificial love takes over.

I think we must add that the New Testament means of loving one another centres around a New Testament local church. I grow tired of hearing Christians saying they can’t find a church, so they rather stay at home and read Christian books or listen to the sermons online. This is not passing the test of belonging.

When we are in Christ, we will automatically seek to unite ourselves to the local visible expression of the invisible, universal church – that is, a local, Bible-believing church. Some people are like those who have, spiritually speaking, been vaccinated. Vaccination, or immunisation, is when a weak germ of a virus injected into you. Your body then adapts and can fight off the disease when it comes.

Some people have had a weak, incomplete form of Christianity. It is not the real thing. It does not measure up to the Bible’s test of beliefs, behaviour, belonging and of blessedness. But sadly, they take this weak form in, and they adapt to it. They get a bit of church, a bit of doctrine, a bit of religion.

They now adapt, like a vaccination, so that when the real deal comes along, when Christianity of the Bible is presented to them, they say, ‘Oh, I know about that. I’ve already got it.’ They fight off the real thing when it comes, because they adapted to it through a weak, compromised version.

Don’t let that be you or I. Let’s be honest with ourselves, and agree with the Word. Do you worry what people will think? Ask, what would you think if someone got saved? You’d be glad for them, you’d rejoice. Moreover, will it matter what people thought of you when you have to enter eternity and hear Jesus say, ‘I never knew you?’ What a tragedy when we put the honour of men above the honour of God, and pay for it with our eternal souls!

Do you have your spiritual passport? You need to check. If it’s missing, don’t just imagine it’s there. Put it right today.