Evidences of Salvation / 1 John / 3. The Separation Test
1 JOHN – EVIDENCES OF SALVATION
First of all, let’s look at John’s purpose in writing his letter. Look at 1 John 1:1-3:
1 John 1:1-3 ¶ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us - 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John is writing authoritatively as an eye-witness of Jesus’ life and teaching. John knows how one comes by eternal life, and the nature of such life when one has it. Therefore, he is in a somewhat unique position to be able to proclaim it. His purpose is that those who read his letter might know that they have “fellowship” with believers.
He says, in verse 3, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
In 1 John 2:19, John will speak fo those who:
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
John is saying in the first few lines of his letter,
“I want you to know that you are of us. I want you to know that you are part of the fellowship. I want you to know that you share in the eternal life which the Father and the Son possess, and which all genuine believers possess. Everything that I am no proclaiming as an eye-witness of Jesus is so that you might know that you too have this fellowship.”
That’s our hope this morning too. We don’t want to cause genuine believers to doubt their salvation, but to rejoice in their salvation as they test themselves to see whether or not they are in the faith. As Paul said to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
So, with that, let’s continue. The third test which John offers to help us to know that we are part of the fellowship of genuine believers is what we will call, “The Separation Test”
3. The Separation Test
John continues in verse 15 with another mark of genuine salvation. If genuine salvation causes us to love and obey Jesus, living with the attitudes and affections that he displayed, this means that we will no longer live like the world around us. It means there will be a clear separation between us and the sinful culture around us. John writes:
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
“The world” here is not the created order God called good, nor the people who live in it. It is the organized system of human life that operates independently of God and in opposition to Him - the values, desires, and priorities that the evil one uses to keep people from the Father.
John names three characteristic expressions of that system: the desires of the flesh (the cravings of our fallen nature), the desires of the eyes (the restless hunger for what we see and want), and the pride of possessions (the boastful self-sufficiency that finds identity and security in what we own or achieve). None of these come from the Father. They belong to a world that is already passing away.
A genuine believer once lived under that system. He does not live there anymore. The change is not merely external or occasional; it is a new direction of life. Paul describes the same break:
Ephesians 5:3-8 ¶ But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
The lives of genuine believers show a marked change from darkness to light; from impurity to purity; from pride to humility; from materialism to contentment; from conflict to peacemaking; from idolatry to sincere worship. Consequently, they can’t feel at home in this world, let alone love it. He may still live in it, work in it, and love the people in it, but he no longer belongs to it.
THE WORLD RESPONDS
This is not merely a separation in our hearts, but in our actions. So much so, that the world notices. As the genuine believer grows to love holiness and to separate from the world, the world will naturally return the favour. John goes on to say in 3:13:
1 John 3:13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
The world talks a lot about tolerance, but is in fact wholly intolerant of those who refuse to participate in their godless immorality.
1 Peter 4:4-5 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
As followers of Jesus, we can no longer participate in the world’s immorality. This does not mean that we hate those who do, but simply that we cannot participate. Even that refusal is enough to provoke hostility from a culture determined to normalize what God calls sin.
Jesus warned us that following him would lead to such a conflict. He said:
John 15:18-19 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
DIFFERENT BUT PRESENT
So, if we are to be different from the world, and the world will respond negatively to our pursuit of holiness, should we just isolate ourselves? Is that what separation means?
No. This separation does not mean withdrawing from society into a Christian commune. Jesus prayed that His Father would keep His people from the evil one while leaving them in the world, because He had sent them into the world (John 17:15-18). He called them the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). Paul likewise told believers to live as children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom they shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-16). He also made clear that they are not to entirely isolate themselves from the immoral people of this world, or they would have to leave the world altogether (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).
Genuine Christians still go to school, work jobs, raise families, and live among unsaved relatives as productive members of society. They simply do so as those whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and who refuse to be conformed to this world’s pattern (Romans 12:2). They remain in the world, distinct from the world, in order to reach the world.
Do you still feel at home with the world’s materialism, its pride, its impurity, and its restless craving for more?
Does the entertainment you consume, the ambitions you pursue, and the way you spend your time and money look more like the world or more like a person who belongs to the Father?
Has your former love for the world begun to give way to a sincere love for Jesus and His holiness?
Do you see this world as an opportunity to indulge in your wants and desires, or do you see it as a mission field to be reach through your example and witness?
[Conviction, Submission, Separation]
4. The Anticipation Test
John has already shown that genuine believers are marked by conviction of sin, submission to Christ’s commands, and separation from the world. Now he adds another: they live in hopeful anticipation of Christ’s return and their own glorification. Look at 1 John 3:1-3:
1 John 3:1-3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
The opening words are meant to stop us. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” We are not merely forgiven servants. We are sons and daughters. That present reality explains why the world does not recognize us. It did not know Him, so it does not know those who belong to Him. The distance we feel from the world’s values is not an accident; it is the natural result of belonging to another family.
Yet what we are now is only the beginning. “What we will be has not yet appeared.” When Christ appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. That is glorification - the day when every last remnant of sin is gone, when these bodies subject to weakness and death are raised in power and purity, and we are made fully like our Lord. This is not vague optimism. It is the settled hope of every genuine child of God.
NOT AN IDLE HOPE
That hope is never idle. Look in verse 3:
3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Everyone who hopes this way – purifies himself. If we are anticipating his return and our glorification, we are awaiting our deliverance from sin and mortality. The same longing which looks forward to such purity, such glory and such freedom also drives us to pursue purity here and now. If we genuinely desire to be found in perfect purity then, it will be seen in a love for purity now.
Peter draws the same line:
2 Peter 3:11-14 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
And Paul to the Colossians wrote:
Colossians 3:1-6 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 ¶ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Not everyone who talks about the Lord’s return is living in this hope. Some become absorbed with timelines, signs, and speculation about the last days, yet their lives show little growing purity. They can discuss prophecy at length while remaining comfortable with the same old sins. John’s point is different. The hope he describes is not fascination with events; it is longing for a Person. The one who truly hopes in Him - who wants to see the Lord he loves and be made like Him - cannot treat holiness as optional. That anticipation produces a present pursuit of purity. The genuine believer is not merely waiting for the end of the age; he is waiting for his Savior, and that waiting changes how he lives now.
A REPEATED THEME IN JESUS’ TEACHING
Jesus repeatedly pressed the connection between His coming and present readiness. He told the parable of the ten virgins who took their lamps to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13). Five were wise and brought oil; five were foolish and did not. When the cry went out at midnight, only those who were prepared entered with Him. The others were shut out. Jesus’ application is direct: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
He gave the same warning in other pictures. The servants who stay dressed for action and keep their lamps burning, ready for their master to return from the wedding feast (Luke 12:35-40). The faithful steward who is found doing his master’s will when he comes (Matthew 24:45-47). The command is consistent: be ready.
That watchfulness shows itself in obedience and purity. The one who is watching does not want to be found careless with holiness or absorbed in the things that will pass away. He keeps short accounts with God. He puts to death what is earthly. He treats the commands of Christ as binding today because the Lord who gave them may appear tomorrow. The oil in the lamp is a life already aligned with the One who is coming. Everyone who hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.
A hopeful anticipation of Christ’s coming, and our glorification leads us to live in purity in the here and now. It is evident in the life of a genuine believer that he is not content in this life. He is not trying to get all he can out of this life before the next. Instead, his life is marked by a character of self-discipline, delayed gratification, spiritual priorities and moral purity.
[Conviction, Submission, Separation, Anticipation]
5. The Affection Test
1 John 3:14-16 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers…
John now gives another mark that we belong to the fellowship of genuine believers: we love the brothers. This is not a vague warmth toward religious people in general. It is a particular affection for those who belong to Christ. John even puts it in the strongest possible terms. Love for fellow believers is how “we know that we have passed out of death into life.” The absence of that love is not a minor character flaw. “Whoever does not love abides in death.”
This should not surprise us. John began his letter by saying that his purpose was that his readers would have fellowship with the apostles, and that this fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). Those who share life with the Father and the Son will share life with one another. The same new birth that produces conviction of sin, submission to Christ’s commands, separation from the world, and hope in His appearing also produces a new family affection.
John says the same thing later in the letter:
1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
If you love the Father, you will love His children. Do you love fellow Christians? Not only those whom you might be naturally drawn to, but those who you might otherwise overlook or even avoid? Has your love for Jesus caused you to forge unlikely friendships and produced in you an uncommon love? It's this kind of supernatural love, uncommon to the world, that ought to set the church apart.
LOVE DEFINED BY THE CROSS
And notice that John won’t allow talk about such a love to remain in the abstract. He immediately defines it by the cross:
1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
John tells us that a sure sign of salvation is a love between fellow believers – and he doesn’t allow us to define that love for ourselves. The measure is the love of Jesus Himself. He loved with a humble, sacrificial, serving love. He loved people who could not repay Him and did not deserve Him. That is the pattern He set for His people.
This is the same command Jesus gave on the night before He was crucified:
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say the world would know we are His disciples by our buildings, our precision in doctrine alone, or even by our evangelistic activity. Those things matter. But the mark He named is this: “if you have love for one another.” The consequence of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection is the establishment of a community of ransomed people who love one another. And this love must be a Christlike love, since it is the evidence that we belong to him.
NOT IN WORD ONLY
Now, to help us avoid what might be our natural tendency to relegate this sort of love to mere feelings, John goes on to show just how practical this love is. He says in verse 17-18:
1 John 3:17-18 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Words are not enough here either. A claim to love the brothers that never opens the wallet, the schedule, the home, or the heart is not the love John is describing. Genuine love notices need. It refuses to close the heart. It moves toward the brother or sister at cost to itself.
That is why Jesus could say that “all people” would know we are His disciples by this love. How else would they know, except by seeing it? Love that stays inside private sentiment cannot serve as a public mark. Love that shows up in deed and in truth can.
This is also why the New Testament is so full of “one another” commands. They are not extra advice for already-healthy churches. They are the practical shape of the love Jesus commanded. We are to love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, bear with one another, forgive one another, serve one another, stir one another up to love and good works, and refuse to speak evil of one another. These are not optional extras. They are how the Affection Test becomes visible in ordinary congregational life.
WHAT THIS LOVE IS NOT
This does not mean every relationship in the church will feel easy. It does not mean we pretend there are no differences, no disappointments, and no need for correction. Love in the church includes admonition, restoration, and sometimes even the hard work of discipline. But even then the aim is the brother’s good, not our own irritation. The question is not whether we enjoy every person equally. The question is whether the life of Jesus in us produces a real movement toward His people - especially when it costs us something.
Hatred, contempt, settled indifference, and a closed heart toward the brothers are not compatible with eternal life. John is willing to say that as plainly as he said it about walking in darkness and refusing Christ’s commands.
THE TEST APPLIED
So examine yourself:
Do you have a real affection for fellow believers - not only the ones you would have chosen, but the ones Christ has placed beside you?
Has your love for Jesus created in you a love for His people that you did not have before?
When a brother or sister is in need, does your heart open or close?
Is your love visible in deed and in truth, or does it remain mostly in talk?
Would an outsider looking at this church have reason to conclude that these people belong to Jesus because of the way they treat one another?
The one who has passed from death to life will not be content to love Jesus in isolation from Jesus’ people. He will want to love the brothers. That desire, however imperfectly practiced, is itself evidence that he has come to share in the life of the Father and the Son.
[Conviction, Submission, Separation, Anticipation, Affection] 6. The Continuation Test
1 John 4:1-6 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them….
John has shown that genuine believers are marked by conviction, submission, separation, anticipation, and affection. Now he adds another: they continue. They remain in the truth about Jesus. They do not merely start with the gospel. They hold to it.
The immediate concern in chapter 4 is false teaching. “Many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Not every voice that uses Jesus’ name is from God. So John gives a test: “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” The issue is not vague spirituality. It is the real Jesus - the eternal Son who truly became man, sent by the Father, the only source of eternal life. To deny that, or to replace Him with a Christ of our own minds, is not a secondary issue. John calls it the spirit of antichrist.
This is not talking about a one-time confession for salvation. This is talking about one’s on-going conviction. A test of whether one is truly from God is whether they hold faithfully to the confession that Jesus is the incarnate God – the divine Son who came in the flesh.
He has already said the same thing earlier:
1 John 2:22-23 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
Genuine believers do not treat the person of Christ as negotiable. They confess Him as He has been revealed:
the eternal Son of the Father, truly God and truly man, who came in the flesh, lived without sin, died as the atoning sacrifice for sinners, rose from the dead, and now reigns as the only Saviour and Lord. He is the Christ, sent by the Father, the only source of eternal life, and the only mediator between God and man.
To confess the Son is to confess this Jesus - not a lesser Christ of our own making:
not a created being who became a god
not a spirit who only appeared to be human
not a good man later promoted as divine by the church
not one enlightened teacher among many
not a mere moral example
not a martyr whose cross did not actually atone for sin
not a Saviour whose work must be finished by our rituals, merits, or extra mediators
not a merely human prophet who pointed to God who was not Himself God
not one valid path to the Father among other equally valid paths
not a political mascot who exists to baptize our tribe, party, or nation
not a therapist whose main work is to affirm us rather than save us
A mark of genuine salvation is a continuation in sound doctrine – faithfully confessing Christ as he is revealed in scripture.
THEY WENT OUT FROM US
When John addresses those who get Jesus wrong, he’s not primarily talking about those outside the church, but is warning that some within the church will defect from the faith. Look at 1 John 2:18-19:
1 John 2:18-19 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
This is one of the most searching sentences in the letter. Their leaving did not cause them to lose salvation. It revealed that they never truly belonged. John does not say, “If they had continued, they would have become of us.” He says the opposite: “If they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Continuation does not create life - life produces continuation.
PARABLE OF THE SOWER
Jesus taught the same reality in the parable of the sower.
Some hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. “They believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away” (Luke 8:13).
Others hear, but the cares, riches, and pleasures of life choke the word, and their fruit never matures (Luke 8:14).
The good soil is different: “they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
Temporary enthusiasm is not the same as saving faith. Genuine faith holds the word fast. It faithfully continues in the truth of the gospel.
That is why a promising start can still deceive us. A person may make a bold profession, join the church, and speak of Christ with excitement, only to turn away when following Jesus becomes costly, or when the world becomes more attractive than He is. Jesus warned that this would happen. The church should not invent categories to excuse the unchanged life of one who claims to be a Christian, but does not continue in the faith (i.e., “carnal Christian”). Scripture’s explanation is simpler: if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
LET WHAT YOU HEARD ABIDE
John then turns to those who have remained:
1 John 2:24-25 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us - eternal life.
The test is not whether a person once prayed a prayer, used Christian language, or walked with the church for a season. The test is whether what they heard from the beginning still abides in them. Genuine believers remain in the apostolic faith. They do not outgrow Christ. They do not revise Him into someone less demanding or less divine. The don’t suddenly feel that Christ is not enough and begin adding saints, or other mediators. They continue in the pure gospel.
THE APOSTOLIC WITNESS
Listen to John in 1 John 4:6. He writes:
1 John 4:6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Notice the “we” and “us” in this verse. Who is John talking about? Who must we listen to if we want to be in the truth and not in error? I think the beginning of his letter helps us. He writes:
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
The “we” and “us” are the eyewitnesses of Christ’s ministry and those commissioned to preach it. These are the apostles. John is asserting apostolic authority and then proclaiming that the test of whether one is holding to truth is whether or not they are faithfully holding to what the apostles taught.
The church does not invent its own Christ. It receives the Christ proclaimed by those who heard Him, saw Him, and were sent by Him.
EVEN IF WE OR AN ANGEL
What we are learning here is that there is a body of truth, preached and taught by the apostles which remains authoritative. There’s a body of doctrine that can’t be altered. There’s a final revelation that shouldn’t be toyed with, or added to.
This is the faith that Jude felt it so necessary to defend. He wrote to his audience:
Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
There are some religious traditions that don’t see the faith as “once for all delivered” but a body of doctrine that develops and evolves over time. They see themselves as the overseers of the development of apostolic doctrine – allowing them to add just about anything to the faith and claim it holds apostolic authority. There are obviously major problems with this. Paul wrote to the Galatians:
Galatians 1:6-9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
Paul was famously frustrated with the Galatians as they quickly deviated from the true gospel – salvation by grace, through faith alone (which the apostles taught), and to a gospel that mixed in works for righteousness.
What’s interesting in Paul’s warning in Galatians 1 is that even he as an Apostle looked backward to the gospel that was already revealed, and held it up as the unchanging authority. He didn’t allow for further development, additions, revisions, or subtractions. He recognized the unique role of the Apostles, and the unique time period in redemptive history.
God revealed the gospel through the apostles, and once revealed, that gospel was authoritative. That gospel was revealed, established, delivered, and authoritative in the first century so that even Paul deferred to that revelation.
Notice he says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Not even the Apostles, or those who might claim to be apostles, or those who might claim to be in the line of apostolic succession, or those who claim to be the caretakers of the development of apostolic doctrine should be heeded, if what they are saying contradicts the pure gospel. Instead, Paul says, “let them be accursed.” Let him be given over to God as an object of judgment.
The one who deviates from the Apostolic doctrine – no matter what authority they claim, is not to be counted a brother in Christ, but rather accursed.
THE PULL TOWARD ROME
So, John’s test is not whether a community still uses Jesus’ name, or gospel terminology. It is whether they confess the Jesus who actually came in the flesh: the eternal Son of the Father, the only Mediator, the only Advocate with the Father, the only source of eternal life. To remain in that confession is the line between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
That is why the present pull toward Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy must be tested, not admired. The instability of the culture and the thinness of much contemporary Protestantism have created a hunger for something older, weightier, and more rooted. That hunger is understandable. Antiquity, liturgy, and a sense of the holy are not sins. But John does not tell us to follow what feels like ancient tradition. He tells us to test the spirits. The question is not, “Does this tradition look older than the church down the street?” The question is, “Does this tradition still confess the Son as Scripture confesses Him?”
Every generation of believers must hold their confession to the same standard that Paul did – the already-revealed gospel.
An example of this gross deviation from the already-revealed gospel is the veneration of Mary. After Acts 1, the New Testament goes quiet about Mary, not because she was unloved, but because the church’s confession was never meant to orbit her. It was meant to orbit Christ.
What later tradition has done with Mary is another matter. Official teachers in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy will insist they do not worship Mary as God. They distinguish adoration given to God from a unique veneration given to Mary. That verbal distinction does not settle John’s question. The issue is not what word they prefer to describe their veneration of Mary. The issue is whether the Mary they have invented threatens the already-revealed apostolic gospel.
THE CATHOLIC “MARY”
Consider the work they assign to Mary and they honor they require one give her.
They give her titles that belong to Christ and to the Spirit. Scripture says we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). Jesus names the Holy Spirit the Helper (John 14:16, 26). Yet Mary is invoked as Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix. She is called Queen of Heaven, Mother of Grace, salvation of sinners, hope of the hopeless.
In Orthodox prayer she is addressed as one who delivers from dangers by invincible might, and the congregation is taught to cry, “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” Even when the language is later explained as “through her intercession,” the prayer itself asks her to save, deliver, protect, and grant the kingdom.
They give her a place in the approach to God that belongs to the Son alone. “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5–6). This is a statement about who can stand between holy God and guilty people. Christ can, because He is the eternal Son who became flesh, offered Himself as the ransom, rose, and now lives to intercede (Hebrews 7:25).
No creature shares that office. Asking a fellow believer on earth to pray for you is not the same thing as building a standing mediatorial office for a glorified woman through whom grace is said to flow and before whom the faithful regularly bow. One is the mutual help of the body. The other is a wholly unscriptural veneration that relocates a believers trust from Christ alone, to Christ and his Mother.
They give her a maternal economy of grace that Scripture never gives. Catholic teaching has said that, taken up into heaven, Mary “did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.” That is not the language of a grateful church remembering a saint. That is the language of an ongoing saving function. Even recent attempts to restrain the titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of all graces” still leave in place the older invocation of Mary as Advocate, Helper, and Mediatrix, and still speak of her maternal role in the order of grace.
The fact that the Catholic church has to make statements to try to restrain their followers from calling Mary “Co-Redemptrix” is itself an admission that they’ve strayed far from the pure gospel. When a church must keep explaining that its not actually praying to, or worshipping Mary, it proves that they’ve introduced so much error that any onlooker can’t be blamed for hearing blasphemy.
This is not a disagreement about secondary issues. John says that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, and that the spirit which will not confess Jesus as He is, is the spirit of antichrist. You can deny the Son by saying He never came in the flesh. You can also deny Him by keeping His name while distributing His titles, qualities, works, and offices to others.
A Christ who is no longer the only Advocate is not the Christ John preached. A Christ who must be reached through His mother is not the Christ who said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). A Christ whose mother is addressed as the salvation of sinners is not the Christ of Acts 4:12: “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Notice what has happened. Qualities, roles, and honorifics due only to the Son or the Spirit have been assigned to Mary. She becomes, in the lived religion of millions, the accessible one, the tender one, the one who will not refuse you, the one through whom you come. Christ remains official. Mary becomes practical. That is how a fourth figure is introduced into the life of devotion without ever being formally added to the Trinity. The church still says “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” but then trains the conscience to lean on someone else.
John will not allow that. To confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to confess that the eternal Son has done everything necessary to bring us to the Father. He does not need a co-advocate. He does not need a co-source of grace. He does not need His mother to complete His priesthood. The Spirit does not need Mary to be the church’s Helper. Continuation in the gospel means remaining with this Jesus, not with a revised economy in which His unique glory has been spread to others.
Mary’s own song still rebukes the later Marian cult: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46–47). She magnified the Lord. She did not recruit worshipers for herself. The church that remains in what was heard from the beginning will do the same. It will call her blessed. It will refuse to make her an office-bearer in salvation. It will not treat the veneration of Mary as a mark of depth. It will treat the undiminished Christ as the mark of truth.
So, the trend must be named for what it is. Some are leaving thin evangelicalism for what they believe is the ancient church. But leaving a shallow church for a church that relocates the honor of the Son is not a return to the apostles. It is another way of going out from us. Continuation is not loyalty to the oldest institution still standing. Continuation is remaining in the apostolic gospel. The same gospel that Jude defended as once-and-for-all delivered, and that Paul said even an apostle couldn’t alter.
THE TEST APPLIED
So examine yourself:
Have you remained in the Jesus you first received - the Son of God who came in the flesh, died for sinners, and is the only source of eternal life?
When teaching arises that diminishes His person or redefines His gospel, do you recognize it as error?
Do you still listen to the apostolic Word as binding, or have you grown comfortable setting it aside?
Has time revealed a deepening hold on Christ, or a slow drift from the truth you once confessed?
Have you remained with a Christ who needs no other mediator, whose glory can’t be shared with another? Or are you entertaining religious traditions that have altered the gospel, because they have an air of ancient authority?
The one who belongs to God does not merely begin with the gospel. He continues in it. That perseverance is not the price of salvation. It is the evidence that the life of God is in him, and that what he heard from the beginning still abides in him.
CONCLUSION
John didn’t write these things so that genuine believers would doubt their salvation, or so that anyone would try to manufacture fruit in order to earn God’s favor. He wrote “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). The tests we have considered are not a ladder into the kingdom, they are the marks of those already made alive in Christ.
When the Father gives new life, the Spirit does not leave that life hidden.
He produces a persistent sensitivity to sin that leads to repentance.
He produces a humble submission to the Word and a desire to keep the commands of Jesus.
He produces a growing dissatisfaction with the world’s sin and a refusal to make a home there.
He produces a living hope in Christ’s appearing that purifies us now.
He produces a sacrificial love for the brothers.
And He produces a continuance in the Jesus who was proclaimed from the beginning - the eternal Son who came in the flesh, died for sinners, rose, and now reigns as the only Savior and Lord.
Those marks do not appear in a vacuum. They are what God grows in us through the ordinary means of grace.
He uses His Word to convict, to command, to separate us from the world, to fix our hope on Christ, to teach us how to love one another, and to keep us in the truth.
He uses prayer as the place where conviction becomes confession and where weak faith asks to be kept.
He uses the ordinances to press the gospel on us again and again - that we belong to the crucified and risen Christ, and to His people.
He uses the fellowship of the local church as the very setting in which love becomes visible, error is tested, wanderers are restored, and perseverance is not attempted alone.
So if you look at these tests and see the gracious work of God, however imperfect, do not treat that as a reason to grow careless. Stay under the means He has given. Keep coming to the Word. Keep confessing your sin. Keep walking with Christ’s people. The same grace that began the work is the grace that will finish it.
If you look at these tests and find little evidence that you belong to Him, do not soothe yourself with an old profession, a prayer you once prayed, or the fact that you still know the language of the church. John will not allow that. But do not despair either, as if the answer were to try harder at producing fruit you do not have. The answer is Christ Himself. Come to the Son whom the Father sent. Confess your sin. Trust His sacrifice. Take your place among His people. Then remain where God has promised to keep His own: under the Word, in prayer, at the Table, and in the fellowship of the church.
We must avoid two errors. One is the idea that a person can be genuinely saved and then lose that salvation. The other is the idea that a person can be genuinely saved while showing no evidence of it. Scripture teaches neither. Those who belong to Christ are kept by God, and that keeping becomes visible over time. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us. And those who continue do so because the Father guards them, the Son intercedes for them, and the Spirit uses the means of grace to hold them fast until the day they are found blameless at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Next time, we will consider the “Anticipation Test.”
