1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:1-6

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. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. 4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 3:24 says “Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.”

Now tells us to be careful who we listen to…

VS. 1… 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.

Here John tells his readers that we have a responsibility to not just believe whatever we hear or see…

Why do we need to test spirits?

Because there are false prophets! Paul is not the only one who warns us of this…

Jesus in Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”

Paul in Acts 20:29–30 “I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following.”

Peter in 2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

False prophets fall into two categories:

1. Claiming to be from God, but are not.

2. Claiming to be from a false God.

VS. 2-3…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. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

John now gives his readers and us the method of determining if a spirit is from God?

How are we to test the spirits? Through their confession.

John has already identified Jesus as the anointed one from God, Now he specifies that Jesus came in the flesh.

Some deny God’s nature was in Jesus, and some say that God’s nature came into Jesus at his baptism and left before his suffering on the cross.

The issue with both of these understandings is that he would not know what it was like to be fully human while having deity! He wouldn’t be fully God and fully man,

ii. Those spirits that deny Jesus was human and divine (Messiah, Christ, anointed one) are not from God!

This deny comes from THE antichrist… it is the spirit of the anti-christ.

VS. 4-6…Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

After telling his readers that the spirit of the antichrist is already here, he encourages them by reminding them that the spirit that is in the world is not greater than the spirit that is in them.

He is not denying that the spirit that is in the world is powerful, he is reminding his readers that the spirit that is in them is even more powerful!

John brings the idea full circle by stating if the true spirit is from God, then the false spirit, the spirit of the anti-christ, is from the world - which is his domain.

The first test of whether one is from God or a false prophet was the belief in the incarnate Christ, Now he sets up the second test.

When you speak and the world accepts what you say, you are from the world.

Those who are from the world - have the spirit of the world, antichrist, say what the antichrist wants them to say, and the world listens to them.

But if you speak on God’s behalf and the people of God agree with you, you can be assured you are speaking as one from God!

Those from God have the ear of those who know God. But those of the world will not listen to those of God!

If you are speaking from God and the world accepts what you have to say, are you really speaking from God?