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. 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, 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. 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. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 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. (1 John 4:1-6)
One question that is being asked everywhere in our society today is: "What is true?" Of course, because of the events surrounding our President, we have found the debate concerning truth thrust upon us. How do you know when someone is telling the truth? All of us thought that we had a good understanding of the difference between truth and falsehood, but now everyone seems quite ready to redefine the terms. A lie seems no longer to be a lie. Of course, a great many other things seem to be what people want them to be as well. We will try to avoid getting into them this morning.
But our question still remains. How do you determine what is true? And when it comes to religion or Christian experience, then the question becomes vital. You see, if we do not have an ability to discern the truth from the error, we will quickly be led astray into something other than true Christianity. There have always been plenty of people teaching different things. There has certainly been no shortage of those who claim to speak for God. There are many different denominations, religious movements, cults, and "isms" of all kinds. How do you sort them all out? How do you evaluate all of the claims?
In answering these questions, many people take one of two extremes. The first is that some evaluate religious truth based solely on intellectual and academic considerations. In other words, for something to be true it must pass all of the theological tests of accepted scholarship. This is one approach.
The other extreme applies a purely subjective approach to evaluating what is true. In other words, if something feels right it must be true. If it speaks to my heart, God is in it. If I feel the Spirit, that is enough to verify something as from God.
I say that these two approaches are extremes because each excludes the other. Each needs the other, however. In fact, they are really complimentary to each other. The first taken alone often produces a dead orthodoxy. We may be right, but we are dead right – we have truth that is not energized by the Spirit. On the other hand, the second approach often produces a gullible person easily led astray into error. What is perceived as the life of the Spirit may simply be the effect of someone playing on our emotions. Or it may be that we are in an emotional condition that lends itself to manipulation. We need both approaches in balance in order to evaluate what is true.
We want the life of the Spirit. We want more than cold logic. Indeed, we must have more. Christianity without the life of the Spirit is not true Christianity at all. On the other hand, the Spirit never leads in contradiction to the revealed word. So we should seek the activity of the Spirit in concert with the word. And we should never hesitate to evaluate everything by the word to determine whether the apparent life of the Spirit is in fact the true life of the Spirit.
Our text today urges us to test the Spirits. In other words, we are urged to have a healthy skepticism. As Christians, we should not be gullible. We should not believe everything that comes along claiming to be from God. John says to us: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
Now, there are some who do not believe that it is ever proper to evaluate spiritual experiences at all. In their minds, to do so would be to demean the experience. Many people do not believe that we have the capacity to understand true spiritual experiences and therefore should not even try to do so. But this is not the biblical view. The biblical view is stated here by John. It is that we have a responsibility to do some thoughtful evaluation. We are to put our experiences to a test. Apparently, God is not concerned in the least that true spiritual experiences will not pass the test. On the contrary, He knows that they will. That is why we are encouraged to not believe every spirit. We should have a healthy skepticism.
And the reason for this healthy skepticism is clear. As John goes on to say, it is because many false prophets have gone out into the world. He tells us that there are many false prophets out there, and we need to be on our guard. There are many who are speaking in the name of God, but they are not of God. God did not send them and they are not speaking His word.
Throughout church history there are many illustrations of this. But you do not have to go back very far to find contemporary illustrations of this. The two most notable in recent memory are David Koresh and Jim Jones. Both deceived many people. Both claimed to speak for God. In fact, David Koresh claimed to be the Messiah. Both situations also ended in tragedy. But these kinds of things do show us how powerful the lie can be. They also show us how gullible people can be. We can be misled. We can sincerely believe a lie. I have no doubt that many, if not most, of their followers sincerely believed in what they were doing. But they were sincerely wrong. And we must be on our guard lest we be deceived as well.
So what are we to do? Well, it seems clear that we must have some method by which we can evaluate those who claim to speak for God and what is spoken by them. And this is what John gives us. He reveals to us what is the true key for evaluating truth and error.
Christ is the key to evaluating what is true. John goes on to say: 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, 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.
What John is saying is that everything centers around the person of Christ. Christ is the key. What a person believes concerning Christ will tell you a tremendous amount about them and their theology.
Spurgeon once said that Christ is the sum and the substance of theology. In other words, Christ is the central focus of all that God has done, is doing, and is going to do. He is the central focus of all the Scriptures. The Old Testament points toward Him. And the New Testament points to Him. He is foreshadowed in the Old, and revealed in the New. In the Old, He is seen in symbol and type and in the New, He is revealed as the reality behind it all.
The Gospel message is a message about Christ. And the central truths concerning Christ are essential to the Christian faith. If your beliefs concerning Christ are not right, your faith is wrong. His birth, life, death, resurrection, and Second Coming are all vitally important truths. In His birth we see His deity. He was born of a virgin. It was divinity uniting with humanity that produced Jesus Christ. He was not a mere mortal man. He was the divine God-Man. What you believe about His birth matters.
In His life we see His righteousness. He never committed a single sin. He did not sin in word, thought, or deed. He was spotless. He was perfect. His life testifies to His purity. It also testifies to His claim to be the Son of God. His miracles were divine attestations of His divine power. What you believe about His life matters.
In His death we see His substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf. On the Cross He paid the penalty for our sins. He died there as one without any sin. Because of that, He could die for our sins. In His death He paid the penalty for our sins. He died in your place. He bore our sins. What you believe about His death matters.
In His resurrection we see the authentication of His claims. We see the hand of almighty God. Jesus’ resurrection proves that He was and is who He said He was. His resurrection proves that He is way, the truth, and the life. What you believe about His resurrection matters.
And in His Second Coming we will one day see the fulfillment of His promise to receive us into Heaven’s glory. It is our blessed hope. It gives us encouragement as we face the difficulties of this life. What you believe about His return matters.
What you believe about Christ is vitally important. John says that it is a key to recognizing the Spirit of God. You see, the Spirit of God will always testify to Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God will point to Christ. The Spirit of God will reveal Christ. The Spirit of God will exalt Christ. The Spirit of God will lead people to Christ. We must beware when Christ is not exalted. We must beware when other things besides Christ are the prominent features of any teaching. Christ is the key.
John concludes this section of Scripture with some pretty strong encouragement for us as Christians. 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. He is telling us that we have power over these false prophets and false teachers. We have power over them because of the one who lives in us. And the one who lives in us is greater than the one who is in world. Of course, the one who lives in us is Jesus Christ Himself. And the one who lives in the world is the enemy of Christ, Satan.
There is a little chorus that is based on the King James Version of this Scripture, entitled "Greater Is He That Is In You." Christ lives in us. He is greater than His enemy. The power of God abides in us. The truth of God abides in us. The life of God abides in us. The wisdom of God abides in us. The love of God abides in us. Everything that God is abides in us. So we can be encouraged in our attempt to understand what is true that God will reveal the truth to us.
John goes on to say: They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 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.
What John is saying here is that Christians have a common fellowship around the truth. In other words, those born of God listen to each other and hear the voice of God speaking through one another. On the other hand, those who are of the world do not listen to those who are from God. Those who are of the world are not even able to understand the truth of God. It does not fit with their worldview. The Bible teaches us that their minds are darkened. It takes the Holy Spirit of God to reveal the truth of God to their minds so they can understand it. John tells us that we can discern what is true and what is false by understanding this.
So, as Christians we are to have a healthy skepticism concerning what we hear that claims to be from God. Does it line up with God’s revealed word? Does it exalt Christ? Does it teach the truths concerning Christ that we find in the Scripture? Does it point to Christ or to some lesser goal? Does it bring us the redemptive life of Christ that will result in His love, grace, and mercy being reflected in our lives? These are all-important tests to apply. May God give us the grace and the boldness to apply them to everything.
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