The other day my morning reading was in 1 John, and came to this opening imperative in Chapter 4–
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.
I immediately wrote in the margins of my trusty journal, “How do we test the spirits?” What tests do we use to determine whether a person is being guided by the Holy Spirit or by a spirit that is hostile to our souls as disciples of Jesus Christ?
The false prophets and teachers of John’s day may have looked and sounded different than those who now populate the airwaves, internet, print media, and even churches of America. But the errors they teach are largely the same, and we too are called upon to test them against the truth of the Scriptures.
John identifies the tests explicitly in Chapters 4 and 5. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you don’t make us guess or struggle to figure it out. Here is what I found, right there in the text of John’s letter.
Test #1: The test of Christology
This is the primary and essential test.
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 (4:2-3).
If someone comes along, as the Gnostics did in the first century, claiming that Jesus was not a real man who lived in a human body, they are spreading a doctrine of the antichrist. They taught that all matter, including human flesh, is evil. Salvation, they believed, could only be attained through secret, spiritually esoteric knowledge.
False teachers rejected the idea that a human being could be perfect and sinless. They unfortunately missed the fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was not born with a sin nature like the rest of humanity.
Nevertheless, he was fully human, tested in all the ways we are tested and lived a sinless life (Heb. 4:15). We needed a fully human, fully divine Messiah, and he was the One.
John also clearly states, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,” indicating that the only path to salvation is faith in Christ as Messiah. That is the only enlightenment necessary to be born again.
Test #2: The test of doctrinal truth
They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 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 (v. 5-6).
John speaks as an original apostle of Jesus. He had all the street cred: he heard Jesus’s teaching, witnessed his miracles, and was present for his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. John had been commissioned by Jesus as an apostle and had been filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. John was confident that he and the other apostles of Jesus were the real deal.
John states firmly that teachers who bring a message contrary to the apostles’ doctrine do not represent the Spirit of God. They operate from a “spirit of error.” This is still true today.
Test #3 The test of love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (v.7-8).
John argues that the love that we share as believers comes from God. It is different from other worldly types of love (i.e., romantic, sexual, brotherly), that are common to all people. This agape love is only available to those who are born of God.
We love God with this type of love, and we also love each other .
Test #4 The test of the overcoming, indwelling Spirit
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (v.4).
John addressed the believers as “little children,” not because they were children, but because they are humble and vulnerable like children. Jesus had declared that it was a childlike faith that led people to God.
Yet they were powerful overcomers. When they became children of God, his Spirit was deposited within them.
True, Christlike, spiritual power is not easy to fake. False prophets and teachers can sometimes perform magic tricks to impress people that they have spiritual power. But what spirit is driving their exploits?
We can recognize true believers by their humble abiding in Christ, their reliance on the Spirit in all things, and their ability to persevere when suffering and opposition come.
False teachers are eventually exposed, and it is often when they experience a setback and don’t have enough spiritual integrity to hold them up. We need to be able to recognize them before they do damage to us and those we love.
Test #5: The test of obedience
John’s Gospel and his letters often repeat the link between love and keeping his commandment, which is to love God and others with the same kind of love with which he has loved us.
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. (2:4; 3:24)
In his poetic way, John tells us that true believers love because they obey God, and they obey God because they love. And they are able to do this because of the love that God has given by his Spirit (see tests 3 and 4).
He tells us that when we are bound up in this fellowship of love with Christ, the Father, and our fellow believers, we find that the commandments of God are not “burdensome” (5:3).
If we find that a teacher or leader is not living in a loving, godly, and upright way, we are to steer clear of them and their message. It doesn’t mean that everything they say is wrong, but it does mean we ought not to trust them.
John 4:13-17 summarizes these tests beautifully:
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
If teachers allege to represent Christ and his gospel, we can test them on:
- their testimony about Jesus as Messiah
- their love for God and other believers
- the accuracy of their teaching when compared to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles
- the presence of the Holy Spirit in their walk
- their righteous and holy conduct.
I pray that we would be strong in our discernment of these things.
True believers carry the fragrance of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14-16), so if you smell something else, walk away.
