1 John 3:24, 1 John 4:1-3

This morning we get back into our study of 1 John and we pick up in the last verse of chapter 3, verse 24.

24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us

Here John gives us another proof or test to give us assurance of our relationship with Jesus. Notice John is linking obedience with abiding. I like that the “abiding” is a two way street.

We in Him and He in us. So John is sort of asking how do know He is abiding in you? He answers “by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

In the Greek the word keeps is in the present tense, so it mean “he that continually keeps” His Commandments. The word for commandments is entolē.

Notice though that its not works alone that give us the real assurance, it is His Holy Spirit that he has given to live in us.

The word for Spirit in Greek is pneuma. We have words in English that have this prefix; i.e. pneumonia.

The word in the Greek NT has the following usages:

the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the "Holy" Spirit)

sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of "Truth")

never referred to as a depersonalised force

the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated

the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides

the soul

a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting

a life giving spirit

a human soul that has left the body

a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel

used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men

the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one

the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.

a movement of air (a gentle blast)

of the wind, hence the wind itself

breath of nostrils or mouth

It is interesting that it works similarly in Hebrew, The Hebrew word for spirit is ruwach. Both Hebrew and Greek include meaning of breath, wind, and Spirit.

ruwach

If one is truly Born Again he has the HS living in Him. Have you ever heard the voice of the Spirit?

Article

1 John 4:1–3 NKJV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because 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 of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

- 3

Here John continues on the subject of the spirit or pneuma. We need to remember that when John is writing this that there is not a completed NT that believers can go to and additionally John was combating a false religious teaching called Gnosticism.

Kind of like the spiritual environment today where we have “new age” teaching, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, and JW teachings.

Here John is giving the Church a simple test. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

In this passage John is warning us to not be ‘naive”. It’s scary to think that there are spirits out there trying to deceive you. We are in a battle whether we like it or not.

In verse 1 here John says to try or test the spirit. The Greek word is dokimazō . It is a present imperative meaning this is a command to be continually testing the message and the messenger.

Why? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. The word False Prophet is pseudoprophētēs. Pseudo means fake or false.

dokimazō

Verses 2 & 3 are specifically targeting Gnosticism. They believed that God could never become flesh because the flesh is evil and the Jesus did not resurrect in the flesh.

Today, some groups deny that Jesus is really God (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims). But way back in John’s day, in this time closest to the actual life and ministry of Jesus on this earth, people didn’t have a hard time believing Jesus was God. They had a hard time believing that he was a real man. This false teaching said Jesus was truly God (which is correct), but really a “make-believe” man.

This is not the only test of false teaching, but one that was big in John’s time. The test is is the Jesus being presented the same one that that the NT teaches.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist: To deny the true Jesus is the basis of the spirit of the Antichrist, which John has already mentioned in . It is the spirit which both opposes the true Jesus and offers a substitute Jesus.