An Article of Faith

The key to understanding 1 John is having the assurance of salvation: “These things I have written to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God,” assures John, “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). And the term “know” means, “with settled and absolute knowledge.”
In 1858, the steamship Austria caught fire and sank in the Atlantic, killing 400 people. One survivor told how he and five Christian friends stood between the fire behind them and the water before them. They agreed, that at the end, they would leap from the sinking ship together. When the time arrived, they joined hands, looked at each other, and just before jumping into the cold waters of the Atlantic, expressed their confidence that in just a few moments they would all meet in heaven.
If you were on that ship that day would you have had the same kind of confidence and assurance of heaven as these Christians did?
The word “believe” occurs 55 times in the Gospel of John and only four times in 1 John. However, John uses the word “know” 36 times in 1 John to emphasize the assurance of salvation. He writes his Gospel that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ” and then he writes this companion epistle “to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
When was the last time you took a “quiz?” John gives a 10 Question Quiz concerning the assurance of eternal life. If you answer “true” to each of these questions, then you have the settled assurance of eternal life. However, if you answer “false” to any of these questions, then you need to question your salvation experience: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith;” admonishes Paul, “examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test” (2 Corinthians 13:5)?
Are you ready to start taking the quiz?
•Question #1. True or False – Do you enjoy fellowship with fellow believers? “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7).
The word “fellowship” means “to share together with.” In other words, as individual followers of Christ we need one another in this journey called the “Christian Life.” We need “to share together” in spiritual things like – prayer and Bible Study, corporate worship, giving, ministry, and one-on-one accountability (see 1 Jn. 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11-12).
Does this describe you? Do you enjoy fellowship with fellow believers? Do you look forward to corporate Bible Study and Worship every Sunday? Do you “miss” church when you miss church? Can you name a few other people whom you talk to and pray with on a regular basis for mutual spiritual encouragement and accountability in the Christian life?
True or False – Do you enjoy fellowship with fellow believers?

(Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.)