“First John 4:1-6”

Monday, October 23, 2017

“Beloved, 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

--- End of Scripture verses---

John had just written in the previous verse that we can know God “abides in” us through the Spirit that He gave us if we “keep His commandments” (1 John 3:24). He tells us today that not everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God in him, and professes to be speaking by the Holy Spirit can be trusted (verse 1). There were “many false prophets” that had “gone out into the world” and adversely effected the Lord’s church, even as early as the end of the first century AD. There is every reason to believe that the proponents of false doctrines are exponentially more prolific nearly 2000 years and 20,000 denominations later.

Spiritual naïveté is not an asset but a very dangerous problem and obstacle to spiritual salvation. We cannot afford to accept everyone’s belief system at face value. God has always encouraged and commanded His people to hold self-professed prophets and proclaimers of His word to the test (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; Jeremiah 23:25-40). Today, in the final dispensation of time and God’s covenant with mankind through His Son Jesus, the test is a really critical and simple one. Certainly confessing “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” is an important aspect of the test (verses 2-3), especially for John’s immediate, target audience who had been threatened by the Gnostic view that it was impossible for God to come in the bodily form of a human being.

But the test is a bit more complex than that. It all boils down to this: “he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God listens to them” (verse 5). We must compare everything that someone tries to teach or thrust upon us to what John and the other Apostles of Jesus Christ have said and written. They have “the prophetic word made more sure” (2 Peter 1:19). They had been given the Holy Spirit to guide them “into all the truth” (John 16:13; 2 Peter 1:3), and they spoke the words of Christ for Christ (John 14:25; 16:14-15), therefore they had been given “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” to “bind and loose” the doctrine of Christ upon the earth (Matthew 16:19-20). If someone believes, follows and teaches the truth as laid down by those who taught “from God,” and were authorized to speak it, then they speak religious “truth”. But the one who “listens to them” that do otherwise believes and profess religious “error” (verse 6).

Friend, the mindset that “doctrine doesn’t matter” was not adopted or endorsed by the Lord’s inspired, authoritative ambassadors. All forms of doctrine and worship espoused and taught by those in the denominational world are not valid. If there are religious groups that teach things that are in direct opposition to one another, all of them cannot be true. All may be false, but only one of them can logically be true and authentic. In this ecumenical, politically correct world that we live in, it is considered wrong to say that anyone’s religion is wrong. The inspired Apostle John disagrees with this permissive, liberal, “agree-to-disagree mentality,” and he does so by inspiration of God.

Please do not be afraid or offended to have your faith challenged. Test what you believe and practice against he inspired, infallible, enlivening word of God (the Bible). If your views and beliefs are not in alignment with the Truth, then change. It is just that simple and critical to your eternal salvation. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Please read 1 John 4:7-12 for tomorrow.

Have a great day!

-Louie Taylor

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