1 John 4:1-6

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Scripture 1 John 4:1-6

4 Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. [1]

Devotion

            There was a major difference between the world in Jesus day and today with regard to false prophets. Not that we don’t have false prophets today we certainly do but in Jesus day there was a much greater belief in the supernatural in general than there is today. The people of Jesus day believed in a world that was filled with spirits. Almost every tree, rock, and river or lake, was believed to have its own spirit.

            Today we must still test the spirits to see if they are from God or not. Today it may be easier to fall prey to the false spirit because we have forgotten the admonition of these verses. The world is still full of spirits that seek to influence us in our daily lives. Believers are taught that the Holy Spirit enters a person at baptism and so cannot be filled with any other spirit in their lives. This does not mean that a person cannot be under the influence of another spirit during their lives.

            So how do we test the spirits? It is a relatively easy test to use. Any spirit that confesses Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God, who has come in the flesh in Jesus is of God. Any spirit that denies this truth is a spirit of error and is of the antichrist. We know the spirit of the antichrist is in the world today. Many people have come professing to be Christians and yet deny his divinity, God’s people must be able to discern the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

            The Gnostics of John’s day said that the flesh is evil. Therefore, Jesus could never have come in the flesh, That is why they tried to lead the church astray by saying that Jesus only appeared to have a body, but in reality, was a spirit. That is why John included the test of believing that Jesus came in the flesh. We still have false prophets today that do not believe that Jesus came in the flesh. They say during his life he was a prophet or a great teacher but not God in human form.

            The world accepts them as genuine teachers because they cannot discern truth from error. A person can only hear what he has fitted himself to hear. They accumulate teachers who feed them what they want to hear.

Someone who is following Christ need not worry about them because the one who is in us, Jesus Christ, is stronger than those who are in the world. Perhaps the final test of the false prophet comes down to love. If a person is filled with the love of God, we can know that person is of God if they show God’s love forth to the people. Hatred cannot be of God because God is love.

Prayer

            Almighty God keep us from false prophets with their lying signs and wonders. Keep us in your fold with Jesus as our shepherd. Lead us in the way we should go trusting in your mercy and love. Help us to love you and each other as we ought to love. May we be faithful to you dear Lord. Amen


[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 4:1–6.

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