October 24th | 1 John 4

“Just pray and God will tell you what you need to know.”

Has someone ever told you that? The statement is true, God loves His children and will reveal Himself to them, yet have you ever thought in the back of your mind, “Is this God or me? Is this word from God or from the world?” If that is you, then know you are not alone! The church John was writing to was trying to discern what was right and wrong, what was from God, and what is from the world. John doesn’t tell them just to pray and see what happens. Rather, he gives them some very practical and helpful advice. 

1 John 4:1, “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.” 

We are not just to believe everything we hear. Some people on the internet can sound very convincing. Some co-workers or close friends can sound really convincing. Yet, every testimony and word about spiritual matters needs to be tested because the enemy is trying to deceive and pull us away. So, how does John teach us to discern between God and the World?

1 John 4:2-3, “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.” 

There was a group of false teachers in John’s time who taught that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh as the Messiah. They claimed He was spiritual but didn’t in fact have a real body in the flesh. They also claimed that he wasn’t the Messiah, the promised one who had come to deliver God’s people. Why is this important? Jesus’ body showed He lived in every way as we do, yet did not sin. Therefore, He was a perfect sacrifice. Our deliverance came from His decision to die on the cross, bearing our punishment for us. To deny Jesus’ humanity and purpose in coming resulted in a people who did not worship Jesus rightly. 

How can we discern false teaching from the world and heavenly teaching from above? Check to see what they say about Jesus. Or rather, check to see what they don’t say about Jesus. Some preachers today preach about you and how if you do certain things, you’ll have a breakthrough and blessing. It all sounds really good until you realize they talk about people way more than they talk about Jesus. 

1 John 4:5-6, “5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Do you talk about Jesus and confess Him as Lord, or do you find other ways to be saved? Do the people you listen to confess Jesus as Lord and push you to rest in His work, or do they push you to worship yourself and worldly things? Discern and test the Spirits by clinging to the Gospel and staying focused on the finished work of Christ.