1 John Chapter 4
Chapter 4 is a summary of the main points discussed so far.
1 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.
Just because a thought about God or spiritual things enters your mind it doesn’t mean that that thought originated from God.
Just because somebody else tells you something about God or spiritual things it doesn’t mean that their words originated from God. This is true even if the person who spoke to you is a pastor or elder or a seminary professor.
For this reason, you should not simply believe whatever you are told.
The truth that you need to internalize is that many (many, not just a few) false prophets are all over the place. No doubt, they are in your church and home group too. If you are genuinely seeking the truth you can bet that Satan has directed a false prophet to deceive you before you get to the truth.
These false prophets are not passive but active. They lead, and not just follow.
It is your responsibility to test what they teach and to determine whether they are speaking according to the Bible or not. And just because they quote Scripture it does not mean that they are speaking from God. Never forget that even Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus.
If you knew that there were wild and hungry tigers roaming your neighborhood you wouldn’t just go out for a casual stroll without some protection, would you? So then, what’s the matter with you when you when it comes to spiritual things? Why do you naively swallow things you hear concerning God in your church and on your TV? Don’t you think that 1 Jn 4:1 is inspired?
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; this is the {spirit} of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
An antichrist is one who denies that Jesus came in our flesh. That is, he denies that Jesus, who was 100% God, emptied Himself (Phil 2:5-7), and became 100% man, exactly like His brethren in all things (Heb 2:17), tempted in the same way that we are tempted (Heb 4:15). Specifically, an antichrist does not accept that Jesus overcame sin in a body just like ours, through the power of the Holy Spirit, with no advantage over a person who is born again.
If Jesus had an advantage then He was not just like us and His atoning death could not apply to us. Further, if Jesus experienced eternal life on earth because he had an advantage then how do we know that we can experience eternal life while on earth? In other words, salvation and eternal life for mankind are impossible if Jesus did not come in our flesh.
A person who truly believes that Jesus came in the flesh will also acknowledge that he can overcome every sin by the power of the Holy Spirit and will purify himself.
The way to determine what is from God and what is not is to ask whether what you hear aligns with Jesus Christ coming in the flesh.
Satan’s strategy is to deceive you into thinking that the eternal life that John is talking about is impossible. If you believe that it is impossible you won’t even pursue it, and if you don’t pursue it you certainly won’t experience it.
4 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.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak {as} from the world, and the world listens to them.
There are two camps: God and the world. If you are in God’s camp then the Holy Spirit is in you, and since He is greater than Satan, you have overcome the world – that is, you don’t listen to, and fall for, their untruths. The leaders of the world speak the opposite of Christ coming in the flesh. Those who are of the world listen to them.
6 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.
The people of God listen to, and understand, and live by, the message of Christ coming in the flesh. The people who are not of God do not listen to, and understand, and live by, the message of Christ coming in the flesh.
If you are of God then you know how to discern who is of God – those who listen to, and understand, and live by, the message of Christ coming in the flesh are of God. You can discern this only if you are of God.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Do you love? Then you know that you are (born) of God. God lives in love, and if you know God (i.e. experience God’s nature) then you cannot but live a life of love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
God gave what was precious to Him for us. When we give what is precious to ourselves for others then we know that we love them.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins.
The basis (i.e. origin) of our love is that God loved us. We meet the needs of others because we have internalized that God has meet our most pressing need – the need for salvation.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Our love for others shows that we belong to God. When people experience our love for them then they can get a taste of what God is like, and what it is to be loved!
13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
When we demonstrate God’s love then the Spirit of God in us tells us from within, in no uncertain terms, that we are of God.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son {to be} the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
To summarize, you are of God if you confess that Jesus expressed God to us completely and you are now expressing God to others. Doing this gives you confidence that when God examines you to determine whether you belong to Him, He will know that you are one of His.
You’ve got to understand that just as Jesus was able to express God’s love to others, you are able too. You have the same Spirit in you, and Jesus had no advantage over you. So you can’t say, “You can’t compare me to Jesus and expect the same thing out of me.”
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
Our love for others comes because we have experienced God loving us, and because we are born of God. We don’t love others because God demands it, and we are concerned that God will punish us if we don’t, but because we have God’s nature in us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
If you love God then you will naturally also love those who are born of God. This is because, to love God is to love ‘One Who Loves’. If you love those who love others then you will also love others too.
If you find yourself not loving others then you need to stop and think. You need to ask yourself why. You need to meditate on, understand, and internalize, how much God loves you. You will not make much progress in loving others unless you understand God’s love for you.
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