Assurance that surpasses our feelings. (1 John 3)

When faced with the question "How do I know if I'm saved" you would probably receive a variety of answers from various persons with various opinions, but all Biblical answers will basically boil down to one thing, their fruit. So, knowing this, if you ask yourself "Am I a Christian?" the next question would be "is there fruit in my life." At this point things get more difficult, the most common answer that I give hear and that I give myself is a shaky "I think so...."

Now while this isn't necessarily a bad answer, this is where things usually go downhill for me. The reason is because as soon as I recognize that I may not be producing fruit (which is a valid fear in the life of the believer) my first thought is "I gotta produce more fruit!!!" then comes a renewed zeal for loving others and the fruits of the Spirit as a genuine desire to bolster my assurance, but in that one subtle, seemingly innocent thought I have just crossed the line into works based salvation.

Think about it with me for a moment, if spiritual fruit shows us whether or not we are Christians in the same way that physical fruit shows what kind of tree a certain tree is, then lets continue with this example. Lets say I come to a tree (lets say the apple tree represents Christians) and I see pairs on the tree, or lets say that I see fruit, but I'm not sure what kind of fruit it is. How ridiculous would it be to think that if I can tape some fake apples to the tree it will become an apple tree? It may look like an apple tree now...but in reality it's no closer to being a true apple tree than it ever was.

Now I know that sounds silly, but is that not exactly the same thing that we do in our spiritual lives? We try to "tape on" some spiritual fruits in order gain assurance that we are in fact a Christian tree, when in reality we can't change the tree by changing the fruit, we can only change the fruit by becoming a different type of tree (which btw is quite the miracle.) One other thing, I would like to point out that it doesn't matter how much fruit is on the tree, if there is only one apple, it's still an apple tree. We cannot base the assurance of our salvation how much fruit we produce, because it doesn't matter how much fruit there is as long as it's there.

So lets take all these thoughts and give them some Biblical backbone. The text is 1. John chapter 3. And here's your context:
Chapter 1. Affirms the Deity of Christ and the message He preached.
Chapter 2. Gives us a thesis "I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin" gives hope for those who sin, then contrasts the difference between true believer and non-believer as well as true teacher and false-teacher.
Then we come to chapter 3.
v. 1-3 Declares the Fathers love for us in making us His children and tells us that that as His children we will begin to look like Him.
v. 4-10 Explains that in God is no sin, therefore no one who is born of God (a child of God) will make a regular practice of habitual sin.
v. 11-15 Tells us that the way we can tell who is of God and who is not boils down to loving our brothers.
v. 16-18  Shows how we know what love is "He laid down His life for us" and says that because of that fact we should lay down our life for our brothers.

v. 19 Is the key verse here because it tells us how to have assurance of our faith it says "By this (laying down our lives for the brothers) we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him.
v. 20 Then tells us that if our heart condemns us (because of sin that we still see in our life) God is greater than our heart. It seems to me to say that our assurance is not based on how we feel, or on how much fruit we see in our life. It is based on the presence of spiritual fruit in our lives, any fruit. If we have a desire to lay down our life for others, and that desire works itself giving and sacrificing ourselves for the sake of the Gospel then we know we are saved. It is not something we do to become saved, it's how we know that we are because of something God does in and through us.

 "and He knows everything."
This phrase is very important I think. Because it says to me that as a believer when I see sin in my life my heart will condemn me, but that God, who "knows everything" knows the extent of my sin even more than I do! And if He tells me that my assurance is based only on the presence of fruit in my life and the the quantity or quality of that fruit, then that gives me great assurance to trust in this precious truth.