If your belief and behavior sound and look more like this world, it might be because you still belong to it.

The Belief of Overcomers

• Your sin is so severe that it brought about spiritual death and requires a spiritual rebirth (5:1).
• Salvation demands a belief in what Christ has done and not evidence of what you can do (5:1).
• A genuine love for God is the only force strong enough to change our motives for why we do what we do (5:2).
• Believing that God is worth any sacrifice is the only reason we will ever make a change.

The Behavior of Overcomers

• An indicator of possessing a genuine love for God is when obedience is preferred (5:3).
• We overcome the world when its empty promises are no longer our greatest passions (5:4).
• Faith allows us to neglect the temporal opportunities for the eternal guarantees (5:4).
• If Jesus is who the Bible says He is, the claims of this world no longer have any hold on me (5:5).

• If you try to behave for God, your belief is in what you can do rather than what Christ has done.
• If you believe in Jesus, it will gradually change your behavior.
• If you aren’t overcoming the world right now with correct behavior, it might be because you never started with proper belief.