1 John 4:1-6
"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.
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,
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.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,
because the One who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world and therefore speak
from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us;
but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
This is how we recognize the Spirit of Truth
and the spirit of falsehood.
What do we believe? How do we know what is true and what is false? Can we trust what we read, what we see in the media and the world around us as truth? How easily are we deceived into believing something that is not true? Are we able to discern what is true and what is a lie?
Among other reasons for putting off the writing of this blog entry (some would classify as valid reasons, and some, well, maybe they would be more like excuses), one big reason for why I have put it off is that I really did not know how to write about this passage of Scripture before I had thoroughly thought it out. So many angles one could try to write from, so many questions I had that I first wanted to try to answer in my own mind! I felt that I needed to first come to a point where I could more confidently know the answer in my own mind to some of the questions I asked in my opening paragraph.
I will mention that I have a previous entry, entitled The Last Hour, which will likely be similar to this one. It is based on 1 John 2, starting from verse 18, and in many ways is a parallel passage to this one. Check it out!
Sometimes, to determine the strength of a certain piece of equipment or even a piece of furniture, one puts it through a series of tests. This might also happen with a vehicle, or any number of things, to ensure that it is safe and reliable, and that it is what one wants and expects it to be. This testing will reveal whether the thing is trustworthy to be what it is expected to be. We are told, at the beginning of 1 John 4, to "test the spirits", to see whether they are from God. The problem which is revealed as we read on is that there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world. These false prophets proclaim a false message, and that obviously concerns John, who is writing to a group of believers whom he considers to be his spiritual students, or children. He has taught them of Jesus Christ, as a first hand witness of the life and the authenticity of Christ, and he does not want them to be misled in their faith in the truth of the gospel of Jesus! But...these false prophets are deceptive enough in their message and teaching that it might be possible for them to persuade believers to listen to them. This is why his letter contains this warning!
So now that we have the problem, we need to know how to deal with it. We are given tools to help us do this right away, in verse 2, when John identifies some ways to recognize the true Spirit of God. To help me come to a fuller understanding, when I saw the word "spirit" (lowercase 's') in this section of Scripture, I decided to replace it in my mind, for a moment, with the word "teaching", or "doctrine" (*please note, I would never want to give the idea of changing words in Scripture, but only that as I was spending time meditating on this Scripture trying to glean the depth of its meaning, I felt that this word seemed to be somewhat synonymous with the word "spirit" used in these verses).
So, this far into the passage, I have again been warned that there are false, deceptive teachings or beliefs taught by false messengers whose purpose is, for some reason, to derail our faith in God and to cause doubt in our minds about the true teaching that we received when we heard the good news of Jesus Christ. I am not surprised then, when I read further and find that where those teachings are actually coming from are from the "antichrist", the spirit that opposes God. The great Antichrist who is yet to come in the future, opposing God in his fullest force, is the devil, and it is obvious that that same spirit is already at work in the world around us. I don't have to look very far to see the effects of evil and deception that he leaves as a trail behind him. Sometimes though, in order to blind and derail even those who would seek to know God, the devil will work in sneaky and conniving ways to draw people from the faith. These he cannot get with blatant sin that is easy to recognize, and so he uses his cunning to twist the message just enough to get someone off the right track. Once he has even a small foothold in someone's mind, he has a starting point, and he will not stop! That is something that we must acknowledge and recognize - the devil wants to destroy God's kingdom, and he will go to great lengths to do it! He will gladly blind and deceive if that will work his way into gaining one more soul, and he will use whoever is willing to allow him room. We just have to look back to Genesis 3, in the garden of Eden, and mankind's original fall into sin, to see that Satan is no respecter of persons, and deception is his game. That is why so many cults and false beliefs ravage our world. So many of them look really good, at first glance, because they are really good. They are meant to catch us and trip us up without realizing it, as we seek to know God.
BUT, truth is the absence of deception, and the antonym to falsehood. Truth acknowledges Jesus Christ coming to Earth as a man. I believe this, and every Christmas season, I celebrate the humble beginning that Jesus had when He came to Earth as a baby, in much the same way that every other person comes into this world. But truth does not stop there. Truth acknowledges that the man Jesus was, and was sent by, God. In its fullest, God as the Son came down to Earth, fully God, yet fully man. He left behind His glorious title and what it all encompassed when He became a man who would feel hunger, feel the weariness in His bones after a long day, feel what His creation feels, and not just know it. I find this hard to describe, but I think of Jesus, perfect because He was God, yet willing to take on the form of mankind after mankind had been tainted from its original magnificent creation by the effects of sin. He was sinless, yet He was willing to bear the effects of sin by 'wearing' an earthly body, in order to save us from an eternity spent living under the weight of that effect of sin, which He had never intended for man to have to bear, but which man had fallen into when he strayed from God's protective plan. Though I have probably quoted this before, I must quote it here again, because of the perfect word picture it creates. Philippians 2:6-8 speaks of Jesus this way:
I will mention that I have a previous entry, entitled The Last Hour, which will likely be similar to this one. It is based on 1 John 2, starting from verse 18, and in many ways is a parallel passage to this one. Check it out!
Sometimes, to determine the strength of a certain piece of equipment or even a piece of furniture, one puts it through a series of tests. This might also happen with a vehicle, or any number of things, to ensure that it is safe and reliable, and that it is what one wants and expects it to be. This testing will reveal whether the thing is trustworthy to be what it is expected to be. We are told, at the beginning of 1 John 4, to "test the spirits", to see whether they are from God. The problem which is revealed as we read on is that there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world. These false prophets proclaim a false message, and that obviously concerns John, who is writing to a group of believers whom he considers to be his spiritual students, or children. He has taught them of Jesus Christ, as a first hand witness of the life and the authenticity of Christ, and he does not want them to be misled in their faith in the truth of the gospel of Jesus! But...these false prophets are deceptive enough in their message and teaching that it might be possible for them to persuade believers to listen to them. This is why his letter contains this warning!
So now that we have the problem, we need to know how to deal with it. We are given tools to help us do this right away, in verse 2, when John identifies some ways to recognize the true Spirit of God. To help me come to a fuller understanding, when I saw the word "spirit" (lowercase 's') in this section of Scripture, I decided to replace it in my mind, for a moment, with the word "teaching", or "doctrine" (*please note, I would never want to give the idea of changing words in Scripture, but only that as I was spending time meditating on this Scripture trying to glean the depth of its meaning, I felt that this word seemed to be somewhat synonymous with the word "spirit" used in these verses).
So, this far into the passage, I have again been warned that there are false, deceptive teachings or beliefs taught by false messengers whose purpose is, for some reason, to derail our faith in God and to cause doubt in our minds about the true teaching that we received when we heard the good news of Jesus Christ. I am not surprised then, when I read further and find that where those teachings are actually coming from are from the "antichrist", the spirit that opposes God. The great Antichrist who is yet to come in the future, opposing God in his fullest force, is the devil, and it is obvious that that same spirit is already at work in the world around us. I don't have to look very far to see the effects of evil and deception that he leaves as a trail behind him. Sometimes though, in order to blind and derail even those who would seek to know God, the devil will work in sneaky and conniving ways to draw people from the faith. These he cannot get with blatant sin that is easy to recognize, and so he uses his cunning to twist the message just enough to get someone off the right track. Once he has even a small foothold in someone's mind, he has a starting point, and he will not stop! That is something that we must acknowledge and recognize - the devil wants to destroy God's kingdom, and he will go to great lengths to do it! He will gladly blind and deceive if that will work his way into gaining one more soul, and he will use whoever is willing to allow him room. We just have to look back to Genesis 3, in the garden of Eden, and mankind's original fall into sin, to see that Satan is no respecter of persons, and deception is his game. That is why so many cults and false beliefs ravage our world. So many of them look really good, at first glance, because they are really good. They are meant to catch us and trip us up without realizing it, as we seek to know God.
BUT, truth is the absence of deception, and the antonym to falsehood. Truth acknowledges Jesus Christ coming to Earth as a man. I believe this, and every Christmas season, I celebrate the humble beginning that Jesus had when He came to Earth as a baby, in much the same way that every other person comes into this world. But truth does not stop there. Truth acknowledges that the man Jesus was, and was sent by, God. In its fullest, God as the Son came down to Earth, fully God, yet fully man. He left behind His glorious title and what it all encompassed when He became a man who would feel hunger, feel the weariness in His bones after a long day, feel what His creation feels, and not just know it. I find this hard to describe, but I think of Jesus, perfect because He was God, yet willing to take on the form of mankind after mankind had been tainted from its original magnificent creation by the effects of sin. He was sinless, yet He was willing to bear the effects of sin by 'wearing' an earthly body, in order to save us from an eternity spent living under the weight of that effect of sin, which He had never intended for man to have to bear, but which man had fallen into when he strayed from God's protective plan. Though I have probably quoted this before, I must quote it here again, because of the perfect word picture it creates. Philippians 2:6-8 speaks of Jesus this way:
"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped [clung to]* [held on to]*, but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself
and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"
*some other versions use these words, and I find
that they clarify this statement very well.
that they clarify this statement very well.
All of this, to the best of my understanding, is what the true Spirit of God teaches - that Jesus came from God to live as a man to fulfill His perfect plan to redeem us. We acknowledge this, which means we confess this (we speak it and agree with this statement), and we believe it with all of our heart! If there is some part of this that is changed, tainted, taken from or added to, we must be very careful and aware. We must examine and test any alternate teaching, because every teaching that strays from this "is not from God" and will lead us from the truth! As has been made clear to me over and over again as I have studied the book of 1 John, there are only one of two places that I can be - and that is, either as a child of God, or if not that, then I am, by default, a child of the devil. We are born in sin, belonging to the dominion of darkness which is the devil's domain. Only when we come to salvation through Christ are we transferred into God's kingdom of light, where no darkness can dwell, and are adopted as His children (chapter 3:1).
As God's children, even though we remain for now in this world where evil still comes at us from all angles, in the next verse we have a wonderful reminder of the power we have because we are His. We have been given a clear picture of what we are up against, we can start to separate the truth from the deception by putting what we hear through this test - who do they say Jesus was? We are given words which should surely encourage us if we are worried about whether we will be able to stand up against, and correctly test and discern the different spirits (or teachings/beliefs) that are coming at us. In verse 4, God's Word tells His children that we are "from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in [us] is greater than the one who is in the world". Through our faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son, the way to God the Father is opened up to us. I remember from chapter 2:23 that "no one who denies the Son has the Father" but that "whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also". I also remember from chapter 3:24 that the third member of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, lives within me. He gives me assurance of my standing with God, and the joy of life with Him. The Holy Spirit is my Guide into all truth, and so I am assured that no matter what comes my way, I may do battle against the forces that oppose Christ with the very power of God working inside of me. I like how it says "we have overcome", not that we will yet overcome, but that we have! It makes me want to live like that - as though I have already overcome. Because Jesus overcame the power of death when He rose from the dead, He is already the Victor, and through Him, we are already victorious over the ploys of those who oppose Christ. We live in spiritual victory, with the sure promise that when the set time comes, it will be a full and total victory. Sometimes, yes, it is hard to patiently wait for that day, but those who are His will stand firm to the end and reap the benefits.
This is another difference between the message of truth which is from God, and the message of falsehood which is from men who twist His Word. Those who twist His Word, it says, are controlled by the one who is in the world. "The world" is used many times in the Bible as a stark contrast to God's kingdom (His ways, His people, His dominion). The world is all about a hungry or lustful desire or craving to satisfy self, and to satisfy it now (see chapter 2:15-17). Hidden within the messages of false prophets, many of whom are trying to deceive true believers, and therefore, speaking from the pulpits of churches, will be things spoken from the perspective of the world, which is controlled by the devil. Because of this, they may gain popularity quickly. The world will listen to them because it likes what they say. A false prophet's teaching might be much more widely accepted by the world than what the man of God teaches. The world looks at what it can do for them, and loves it. God's child looks at what He can do, and loves Him.
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them
a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."
2 Timothy 4:2-5
Those who know God, in contrast to those who follow false teaching, will listen to His teaching. They will read His word and actively listen to what it says; that is, they will hear it and obey. James 1:22-25 explains it this way:
"Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says
is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,
and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -
he will be blessed in what he does."
I love this description of what it means to actually listen! I want to apply that way of listening to the last verse of this passage of Scripture from 1 John. If we are listening to God's Word - looking intently into His perfect law that gives us freedom from sin, if we are implementing what we are learning about walking with Jesus into our daily life, if we are slowly and surely turning from our own selfish ways, and following Him, then we are following the pattern of a believer! Whoever is not truly from God will not listen and obey like this. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth, and also, the spirit of falsehood, or as is used in some versions of the Bible, the spirit of deception. The dividing line will grow larger and clearer the further each of them travels in their journey. Even a small variation from the truth will end up misleading and taking its follower further and further away. There needs to be a full 're-centering' if that person who has been straying from the Word of Truth wants to get back on track, and that 're-center' has everything to do with Who they believe Jesus truly is, and with whether they truly listen to what the Bible has to say.
Wrapping it up, I just want to add that at the time that these words were first written by the apostle John, he mentioned that "whoever knows God listens to us". God chose to include those words in His preserved and written word - the Bible. I believe that the "us" that is referred to here is the apostles, the authors of the writings that would eventually become our Bible today, and to those who teach Christ accurately to His people. People back then had to choose whom they would listen to, and though they had the Old Testament scrolls, and at this time were possibly even starting to collect some of the writings that would later become the New Testament, they did not have access to God's written Word like we do today. They had to be really discerning, as much of their teaching was spoken, and not as easily accessed or preserved in the same way that our Bibles are today. We are blessed to live in a time where, every time we hear someone speaking, we have the option of going to our Bibles and comparing what they are saying to what God says in His Word. So I would want to motivate anyone out there to do that! If you hear something that makes you wonder if it is grounded in truth, test that teaching, examine it to see if what it teaches is true. Remember, if you are a child of God, you have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you into all truth.
At the beginning of my blog I mentioned how products often undergo a series of testing to ensure that they will hold up and endure under any kind of use that they will get. I assure you, God's Word, His Spirit, the truth about the gospel of Jesus, has stood up under every test it has been given! It will not disappoint, He will not fail. He is truth, so go ahead, and step out in faith. In Him, we have overcome and all false philosophies will shatter when they are put under the pressure of the testing. With Him, we can echo these words of Scripture:
"...the One who is in [me] is greater..."
Praise His Name!!
___________________________________
There is so much more that could have been said about this topic, and therefore, so much I feel I left unsaid! I had collected a bunch of verses that I had meant to include throughout, that would show the intentions and the identifications of a false prophet. In studying and reading them, I became so aware again of the vast amounts of false teaching that is out there today even in 'Christian' circles. Maybe the quickest way to find much of that false teaching would be to go into a huge Christian bookstore and leaf through many of the popular books that are selling today. My husband and I actually like to do that from time to time, and discuss what we see, trying to point out which titles might raise red flags when put to the test. One of the most deceptive, and I think most easily fallen for these days, is the message that promotes our own self to a point where we believe that we can find the power within ourselves to overcome whatever we face. We must remember that the Bible teaches that it is only through the power of Christ that we have any strength! The message of the Cross is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18), and Christ crucified is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24); we cannot overcome, but God, through Christ Jesus and His sacrifice for us at the Cross - has overcome in our place, and therefore, it is in Him that we find the power to overcome (as we will see later in chapter 5:4 and 5!).
For sure it is certainly extremely important to be alert, aware, and discerning in this day and age. I feel inadequate in giving advice about what specifics to look for, except for those that were expressed in the verses I wrote about today, and also any others that God's Word clearly teaches. Here's a few more verses that I had thought to include, which do exactly that. May God's Spirit guide you into all truth!
"The Spirit clearly teaches that in later times some will abandon the faith
and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Such teachings come through hypocritical liars,
whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron."
1 Timothy 4:1-2
"For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision group.
They must be silenced, because they are ruining
whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach -
and that for the sake of dishonest gain."
Titus 1:10-11
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world
rather than on Christ."
Colossians 2:8
"...command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer
nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.
These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith.
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart
and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk."
1 Timothy 1:3-5
"Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ
does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching,
do not take him into your house or welcome him."
2 John 1:9-10
