Light and darkness.

     Many individuals claim to be Christians. They are sincere, they really believe that they are saved. While it is true that some of them are indeed serving Christ, many of them are sadly deceived.
     We can know for certain that we have passed from death to life. We do not have to be deceived in this vital matter. If we have truly been born again, our lives will show the proof of our salvation.
     John wrote to believers so that they would know that they had eternal life (1 John 5:13). In this epistle, he mentions several things that distinguish between the true Christian, and the false.
     Just as gauges can show us if an engine is running alright, or a fuel tank is full of fuel, our actions also show us the true spiritual condition of our hearts.
     There are several "indicators" mentioned in the first epistle of John. Lets look at one.
     John tells us that God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). This is true. God is holy, perfectly upright and sinless in everyway. There is no hint of sin in His character at all. No mixture of light and darkness, sin and righteousness, He is free from all sin.
     Now, if we say we have fellowship with God, that is to say we are Christians, that we know Him, that we follow Him, that we pray to Him and he hears us, yet we walk in darkness (practice sin), we are lying (1 John 1:6).
     An individual who claims to be a Christian, yet who lives a sinful lifestyle, does not have fellowship with the God he claims to know! As Paul writes,

      "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty."
                       2 Corinthians 6:14-18NASB
     
      Can you see that to be in fellowship with a holy God, we must come out from our sinful lifestyles and separate ourselves unto Him? Paul's reasons that we are the temples of the living God. If we would have Him to dwell in us and among us as Christians we must separate ourselves from the defilement of sin. Plain and simple, if we come out of sin, that is to give it up, He will be a father to us, and we will be His children.
     How can this be if we stubbornly refuse to submit to God, and instead pursue our sinful habits. There can be no fellowship, no relationship, and we are self deceived, still dead in our sins.
     1 John 1:7 tells us that if we are walking in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and experience the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. We are called to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). Just as God is upright in all of His conduct and dealings with man, so we too are to be upright and holy in all of our conduct.
     As God is honest, we too are to be honest. As He is loving, we too are to be loving. There is no immorality in God and there must be none in us as well. God is not covetous, and we cannot be either. Get the picture?
      Read 1 Corinthians  6:9-10. Look at the sins mentioned here, and note that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God! Paul mentions fornicators and idolaters, and adulterers. The effeminate and homosexuals are also excluded from God's kingdom. He names drunkards, thieves, swindlers, and revilers. These are people who are spiritually dead. This is what we were, but we were washed and sanctified, that is cleansed from this sinful way of life (1 Cor 6:11).
      If we are born again, truly saved, we are no longer walking in sin! We are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17). Our lives are changed. We don't live in the same way we once did. The new birth is a supernatural birth wrought by God, that transforms our conduct from the inside out!
     This is one way that we can know if we are truly saved. Do we walk in darkness, or do we walk in the light? How about your life? Like a battery indicator, are you charged, or drained, spiritually dead?