DISCERNING THE SPIRITS

Study of 1 John 4:1-21

4 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.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Outline

There are numerous spirits active in the world. There is a spirit world despite the denial of rationalists who believe that only the material exists and that the scientific method can explain everything. Christian faith is not to be mistaken for credulity. True faith examine its object before reposing confidence in it. Therefore we should test all human teachers who claim to speak under spiritual inspiration. True prophets are the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth. False prophets are the mouthpiece of the spirit of error or the antichrist. Many voices clamor for our attention. We need to be discerning not gullible. We need to preserve the biblical balance, avoiding on the one hand the extreme superstition which believes everything and on the other the extreme suspicion which believes nothing. The test is the truth of the Incarnation. The Holy Spirit testifies to Christ and glorifies him. The fundamental Christian doctrine which can never be compromised is the eternal divine-human Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The contrary is also true. No teacher can be tolerated, however loud his claims or learned, if he denies the Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh, that is, if he denies either his eternal deity or his historical humanity.
Christians should have confidence in their discrimination because they are indwelt with the presence of God who is greater than those who are in the world. They are popular because they speak from the viewpoint of the world. We can recognize the difference between the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of falsehood because the people of God affirm the apostolic truth.
God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ as self-sacrificial love. It is because God is love in himself, has loved us in Christ, and continues to love in and through us, that we must love each other. The coming of Christ is a concrete, historical revelation of God’s love, for love is self-sacrifice, the seeking of another’s positive good at one’s own cost, and a greater self-giving than God’s gift of his Son there has never been, nor could be. Not the incarnation but the atonement is the pre-eminent manifestation of love. God loved us and sent his Son to rescue us, not because we are in any sense lovable, but because he is love. So the greatness of his love is seen in the costliness of his self-sacrifice for the wholly undeserving. No one who has been to the cross and seen God’s immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can go back to a life of selfishness. The unseen God, who was once revealed in his Son, is now revealed in his people if and when they love one another. God’s love which originates in himself and was manifested in his Son is perfected in his people.
We are assured of God living in us and us in him by the gift of his Spirit. This leads us to witness to Christ as the Savior of the world. Our assurance is evidenced by our confession of Jesus as the Son of God. We can rely on the love God has for us in Christ. That love gives us confidence on the day of judgment. The perfect love of God drives out fear. We can love because God first loved us. Hating others denies our love of God. We cannot love God who is unseen if we do not love others. Love of God necessitates love of others.

Questions for Reflection
1. What is your belief about spirits?
2. How do you distinguish between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist?
3. How do you recognize the false prophets in the world today?
4. How confident are you that the Spirit of God in you is greater than the one who is in the world?
5. How does John describe the nature of God as love?
6. Why do some people find it difficult to believe that God loves them?
7. Why is the cross so important?
8. How can we be sure that God lives in us and us in him?
9. What gives us confidence on the day of judgment?
10. Why should we love our brothers and sisters?