Dear Christians, There’s No Need To Worry About Whether You’re Saved

Christians believe that their sins will be forgiven if they place their faith in Jesus. But sometimes we might worry whether we really are saved. Do I have enough faith? Do I really have faith--what if, somewhere in the back of my head, I don't really believe it? Or what if I stop believing it sometime in the future?

There is no need whatsoever to worry about any of this.

There is a need to make sure you have real faith, but it doesn't involve much introspection or worrying. It involves action: Faith without works is dead, as James says.

It helps to know the biblical vocabulary. The Greek word in the New Testament for "faith" is πίστις/pistis, and it means more than just "belief." It means faith, trust, or faithfulness.

So if you ever wonder whether you really have saving faith--biblical faith--you can stop worrying about whether you believe enough, about what you really think somewhere deep down, and about whether you might someday start thinking differently. The right response to this wonder is to be faithful. That means repenting of your sin and following Jesus.

It also means doing the next right thing, as guided by the Gospel and the Scriptures. What that actually is in your case may vary somewhat from person to person and from day to day, but some things are pretty reliably true of more or less everyone. These are some ways to be sure you have faith, and you should never stop doing them:

• Stop doing that sin you haven't stopped doing yet.
• Pray more.
• Follow the Golden Rule. Don't do to other people what you would not want them doing to you. Do to them what you would want them to do to you. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
• Give alms.
• Read the Bible and do something else from the Ten Commandments, from the Sermon on the Mount, from the writings of Paul, or from the book of Proverbs that you haven't done yet.