How do I know? The Bible tells me so

When people speak against the word of God, they are always looking to disapprove the Bible or pull it apart. A believer is a Christian who believes the Bible because their very born-again experience is rooted in believing the word of God.

God the father sent Jesus the Son of God to establish a better covenant. Many times unbelievers use the Old Testament to define a Christian’s way of life today but the New Testament in the word of God says we have a far better covenant.

In the Old Testament, we see the children of Israel knew God as the God of the law and of wrath, but the Christian, the child of God, knows God as the God of love. We are not told to kill our enemies, we are told by Jesus to love our enemies. Those who are in sexual sin, we are told to love them, although we are not told to condone their sin.

The commandment of love is to love all people, even people who don’t believe in the Bible and people who go out of their way to disapprove of it. Being a Christian is not established just because of our acknowledgment of being a Christian. A born-again believer is one who has made Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior and believes that God raised him from the dead.

If we did not have the word of God, the Bible, which was written by holy men of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, there would be no gospel to preach.

People who say the word of God was not inspired by the Holy Spirit are really trying to rob us of our faith to believe. Now it won’t happen for those who are established in the word of God. But for the multitude who needs Jesus as their personal savior, it could affect them. Wouldn’t it be terrible if one person loses their eternal life by listening to unscriptural teachings?

One thing about studying the Bible with the leading of the Holy Spirit, there are no contradictions or misleading. Negativism and unbelief comes from those who do not believe God’s word. They do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide them and the light of the gospel is not revealed to them. A born-again Christian would never intentionally speak against God’s word, he would not continually tear God’s word apart. When a person does so, he is of the wrong spirit.

I always remembered what one minister said: “When a person preaches the word, it should lift up the congregation. If you leave and feel like you have been beat down, it is because it is not the word of God being preached.”

We must always remember Jesus’ commandment of love. The word says if we walk in love, we will keep all the commandments that are given to curb sin.

If a Christian is walking in love, it is profitable in this life and the life to come. The Bible says we have an advocate with the Father — the Lord Jesus Christ — so if you miss it in your love walk, ask God for forgiveness, repent and he will forgive you. How do I know? The Bible tells me so.

A lot of people talk about loving their fellow man, even to the point of using it like a club when they want to make their point. But Jesus’ teachings on loving your fellow man were about the God kind of love, “agape” love, because “philo” love can be a selfish love. Like when parents don’t want their grown children to leave home to start their own families because they want to keep them for themselves. God’s love is never self-serving.

God’s love is loving, even when there is no love returned, because God’s love is everlasting. The world’s love is not bad, but sometimes it becomes self-serving, that is why one should reevaluate their love walk with the word of God.

God’s kind of love will always be victorious in every way — God’s love will lay down one’s life for their fellow man.

The God kind of love would never try to persuade people to disbelieve that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Christians should lift up the word of God, and when a Christian confesses the word of God in faith, then they’re not just a hearer but a doer of the word. That is when your faith in God’s word creates a reality in your Bible-based confession.

God’s word will never come back void. In other words, if a Christian is walking according to the Bible, God says you can have everything he says: health, joy, peace, you name it. We just need to grab a hold of his promises, not go the opposite way with disbelief, which will rob you of the fullness that the Bible says you have.

How do I know? The Bible tells me so.

Lavon Barve works with Cup of Life Ministry in Wasilla.