If You're Still Stalling, You Haven't Been Repaired

This has probably happened to you, too: I took my car to a shop a couple years back, because it wouldn't start properly. The mechanic looked it over, fixed... something... and declared it repaired. Within a couple of days, I noticed the car still wasn't starting the way it should and took it back. I don't know what the mechanic fixed, but it wasn't the problem. If he had, I would have seen a change. Pretty basic stuff.

In the same way, a lot of people claim to know Jesus -- that He has come in and transformed their lives. But, when you actually look at their lives, it seems nothing has changed.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that in Christ we are a new creation. Not a changed creation -- new. Meaning, if we are truly transformed in Jesus, we will be different than we were before. We will reflect Christ to those around us, creating an undeniable witness.

If the book of 1 John has an overall message to it, I think it's this: that people truly transformed by Christ will show it in the way they treat others.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:3-11)

God's will in our lives is evidenced by our love for those around us. It's really that simple. 

I don't have a lot to add, except this: First John is an exceptional book, and not extremely long. Ask God to prepare your heart, to open it to His teaching, and then take a moment to read this epistle. And as you read, compare it to your own life and ask: Does my life reflect the change God has made in me -- and if it doesn't, can I really claim to know Him?