What Are We Told to Look For As Evidence that a Person Has Received Salvation?

Passages such as Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 27-31, and Ephesians 4:11-12 tell us that every Christian is a member of the body of Christ and receives one or more gifts of the Spirit. Notice that if a person is truly able to operate in a gift of the Spirit then this is evidence that the person is saved, because the Holy Spirit and His gifts are only given to Christians.

However, the Bible never tells us that we should look for supernatural manifestations as evidence that a person is saved. So what does the New Testament tell us to look for? These passages tell us what we should look for in order to recognize true disciples of Christ:

John 13:34: ""A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
John 13:35: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.""

John 15:7: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."
John 15:8: "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

1 John 2:5: "But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:"
1 John 2:6: "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

1 John 3:10: "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."
1 John 3:11: "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."

1 John 3:14: "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death."

1 John 3:18: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
1 John 3:19: "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence"

1 John 3:24: "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."
1 John 4:1: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
1 John 4:2: "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,"
1 John 4:3: "but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

1 John 4:13: "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit."
1 John 4:14: "And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world."
1 John 4:15: "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."
1 John 4:16: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

In the above passages we are told that we can recognize Jesus' true disciples by their "fruit." This is described as being obedience to God's commands, acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who has come in the flesh, and displaying the fruit of the Spirit (e.g. Galatians 5:22-23) by loving each other with actions and in truth. These are the things that we are told to look for as evidence that a person has received salvation. The Bible never tells us to look for supernatural manifestations as evidence of anyone's salvation.

 

Love this reply! The spiritual kingdom is here and greater is He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world!