Testing the Spirits
4:1-6
The last sentence of chapter 3 is a transition sentence to this new subject: “by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit he has given us”. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, abides in every believer. Not everyone is a believer, so everyone does not have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, there are spirits that are false and ungodly. We must test the spirits to see if they are true or false. Just because a person claims to have the Holy Spirit or to speak in the Spirit does not mean they are telling the truth.
Every believer has the ability to test the spirits by using his\her Bible.
Some, though, have a special spiritual gift of discernment, the ability to “distinguish between spirits”. (1 Corinthians 12:10) We should listen to those who have that gift.
Many false prophets have gone into the world, John says. (1) He may mean they left his churches and went into the world. Many false teachers today begin as teachers in the true church, then leave to teach false doctrine.
The implication is that false prophets are empowered and driven by false spirits. Therefore, John says, we cannot believe every Spirit and must test them to see if they are from God.
A person who confesses Jesus Christ is a person indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always points to and exalts Jesus. More specifically, John says one must confess that Jesus came in the flesh. (2) This statement may strike you as unusual because we seem more likely to confront someone who denies the deity of Christ as opposed to his humanity.
This statement tells us those who have left the churches John ministers to have those among them who deny that Jesus came in the flesh. The heresy known as Docetism in the second century was named from the Greek word, “dokesis” which means “to seem”.
Docetism taught that Jesus only appeared to have a body. Docetists believed all matter was evil. From that proposition, they reasoned that God could not have a physical body. By denying that Jesus had a body, they also denied that he suffered and died on the cross and rose bodily from the dead.
Some Gnostics later picked up the idea and promoted it. it was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD. The Council rejected Docetism and held that Jesus is "perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man”.
Evidently this was already an issue in the early church. We see in 1 Timothy 3:16 a statement that appears to be a confession or creed: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
When we attempt to discern false teaching, we must be careful. There are many who say they believe in Jesus but do not believe in the Jesus taught in the Bible. The principle expressed in Deuteronomy 13:2-6 serves us well.
In that passage, Moses said “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder the he tells you comes to pass, and he says Let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul.”
We must study to know our Bibles and know the truth about Jesus so can can discern error. Those who teach a Jesus that is contrary to the Bible are antichrists, people who have the spirit of the antichrist. They are “anti” or against the real Jesus.
We need not fear these teachers. Instead, we correct and rebuke because we are from God and, therefore, can overcome them. The one who is in us is greater than the one who is in them and in the world. (4) Jesus said “I have overcome the world”. (John 16:33)The Bible does not teach Dualism.
Dualism is the concept of opposing but equal forces, such as good and evil. A religion called Manicheism, which arose in Persia\Iran, opposed Christianity based on this concept. Although that religion died out, the idea pops up now and again. One could argue, for example, that the “Force” in the Star Wars movies embraces this idea. The light and dark sides are equal and always at war.
The Bible teaches us that God is all powerful and that, while the devil has power, he is subject to God and will ultimately be destroyed. While we do not want to take the devil for granted, we do not need to fear him, as we have the power to resist him. James 4:7 says “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
The world will, however, listen to the false prophets. In this passage, the “world” means the people of the world opposed to God. That is why, when a preacher abandons the gospel and begins to teach something else, his popularity grows. He gets invited to appear on television shows and his books sell many copies.
We, on the other hand, listen to God because we are of and from God. Those who are not from God do not listen to us as we proclaim the truth of the gospel. (8) That is one way we discern the Holy Spirit of truth from the spirit of error, the false spirit.
Many people are led astray because they do not know the Bible. When they hear a new idea, they embrace it. This is especially true if the speaker is winsome. Others are uncomfortable with the truth of the Bible, in contrast to the values of the world, and so modify its meaning to mesh with the world’s values.
We Love because God Loves
4:7-12
Here John returns to his theme of love for fellow believers. While calling his readers “beloved”, or those who are loved, he urges them, and us, to love one another. We should do this because love is from God. Those who truly love each other show they are born of God (saved\converted) and know God. If we do not love, we show that we do not know God, since God is love. (8)
So, what does it mean that God is love? It means that it is an integral part of his character. But we must remember that it is not the only part of his character, his only attribute. God is also holy. “Holy” means, first of all, that God is different than us and anything else in creation. His love, then, is a holy love. It is different than anything we can generate on our own.
But when God regenerates us, he gives us this love. Galatians 5:22 tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love. The one who has been changed by God and given the Holy Spirit now has the ability to love in a Godly way. Conversely, the one who has not been born of God and given the Holy Spirit cannot love in a Godly way.
Knowing God’s love is a holy love also keeps us from seeing God’s love in a secular manner. The concept of love for many people is a much lower concept of love than God’s holy love. God’s love is unselfish and pure. We should love our brothers and sisters in Christ the same way.
God also made his love known to us by his actions, just as John urges us to make our love known by our actions. God manifested his love by sending his only Son into the world to give us eternal life. (9) This is the message of John 3:16. So, love is not defined by our loving God, but his loving us and sending his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (10)
This actually allows us to see two attributes of God. God is just. He must punish sin. God is love, and provided his Son, Jesus, to take that punishment in our place.
Since God loved us this way, we should love one another. (11) God is the source of this love and we should love each other and show we have this love from God. That is how people can know we know God and have his love. We cannot see God, no one has. (12) But everyone can see us love each other as we abide in God and allow him to perfect his love in us. (12)
In addition to having God’s love, we know we abide in God because he has given us his Spirit, the Holy Spirit. (13) We who believe testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior. He is the only Savior available to the world. We believe in God’s love and abide with him. Knowing God’s love and his Spirit gives us confidence for the day of judgment, confident that we are in Christ and have eternal life. We show this by being like him while we are in the world.
Since we abide in God and know his love, we do not fear judgment and punishment. We are not objects of God’s wrath, but of his love. We need not fear death or judgment, for we are his.
John closed this teaching on love by repeating that we cannot say we love God while we do not love our brothers and sisters. God commands us to love each other. (21)
So, find a fellow believer this week and find a way to show love to him or her.
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