How do you know that you know?  In most cases we depend upon some type of test.  How do you know you are qualified as an engineer?  You pass exams.  How do you know if a diagnosis is correct?  You have scans and tests.  How do you prove you are qualified to drive?  You pass a driver’s test.  You know you know when you pass some type of test.

Many claim to know that they know, but when put to scrutiny their confidence melts to mere presumption.  Ultimately there are tests for just about anything and everything so that we can know that we know.  But when it comes to the most important thing we need to know, the condition of our soul and peace with God, we often leave it to mere feeling or experience, content not to know that we know. Not to be sure where we stand.  

Growing up, my church depended on the “altar call” experience.  If you had come to the front and prayed the sinner’s prayer, you had made a decision.  And your decision saved you.  You wrote it the date and time in the front of your Bible because the preacher said that ‘unless you know the date and time you prayed to receive Christ you were not saved.’  All the weight of our condition rested upon personal religious experience and not the grace of God.

But inevitably, later you felt the weight of sin and conviction over some sanctifying area of your life and the enemy would whisper.  “Who are you kidding?” the accuser would say.  Our experience, our moment, our decision was not enough.  Maybe I didn’t say it right.  Maybe I was not sincere enough.  And so, we would begin to seek another ‘experience’ to give us peace and assurance.  Ah! If only there were some objective way to make our calling and election sure?  If only we could know that we knew.

This was the crisis facing John’s beloved children in Asia Minor.  Deceivers, anti-Christs, troublers-of-Israel were making inroads into the church.  Hijacking assurance of faith from confidence in God’s Word, the person and work of Christ, and transformed lives and loves.  They taught that you could know God in your own way through individual religious, mystical experience.  You could be spiritual but not religious.  You could live however you wanted and still be sure that you and God are good.  

And so, John writes to the churches and to us so we that we might know that we know that we have eternal life in Christ.  In John’s first letter he outlines simple, objective theological, moral and social tests to assist believers with assurance.  Assurance that rests on more than a feeling.  Experiences come and go.  They will never provide assurance if the gospel has not utterly transformed our life both on the mountain and in the valley.  

Do you know that you know?  What are you trusting to know the most important thing you need to know?  Join us as we examine 1 John 2:7-11 and consider the social dimension of assurance and what our relationships with others reveal about our relationship with God. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.