1 John 4:1-21

How can I be sure?

1 John

Ian Mackervoy

Chapter 4

Test the *spirits to see if they are true (1 John 4:1-6)

v1 My friends, do not believe every *spirit. First, make sure where they are from. See if they are from God. There are many false *prophets who have gone into the world. v2 This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God. The Spirit from God says that Jesus Christ has come. He came as a human being. v3 *Spirits may not agree with this truth about Jesus. Those *spirits are not from God. This is the spirit of the false *Christ. You have heard that the spirit of the false *Christ is coming. Even now, it is already in the world.

v4 You, dear *children, are from God. And you have overcome the false *prophets. The person in you is greater than the person in the *world. v5 These false *prophets are from the *world. Therefore, they speak about things of the *world. Those who belong to this *world listen to them. v6 We belong to God. Everyone who knows God will listen to us. Whoever does not belong to God will not listen. This is how we know the Spirit of truth. And this is how we know the false *spirits.

Verse 1

We should test whether a person’s message comes from God

There are other *spirits, which are active in the world. These speak by people such as the false teachers. Many of those had been part of the church but they had left it. There are people today who speak from *spirits. They may or may not be in the church. We need to know the origin of what people say. We should not just believe what a person says. We need to know if it is from God or not. If it is from God, we should believe the message. If it is not from God, we must not believe that message.

We must test what a person says. His words may be from God’s Spirit or from some other *spirit. Even if the words seem to be right, we still need to know the origin. The origin is either the Spirit of truth or a *spirit of error.

Many people say that they are teaching God’s message. However, they may not be speaking the truth. We need to test what they say. They may or may not be false *prophets. There are many false *prophets in the world. They teach what is not right. And they speak from the evil *spirits. They teach what is false. They may pretend to have God’s Spirit when in fact they have an evil *spirit.

Verse 2

The Holy Spirit teaches the truth about Jesus

This is how we can recognise God’s Spirit. The test is what a *spirit says about Christ. The Spirit from God teaches that Jesus Christ came. He came in a human body. This means that Jesus is the Son of God. He was the Son before he came to this earth. Jesus was the *Christ all through his life and his death. He is still the *Lord Jesus Christ.

The false *prophets may well have believed that *Christ came from God. But they probably said that Jesus was not the *Christ. They denied that the *Christ had come as a human person. They would not agree that the *Christ died. We can know the origin of the teaching by this test. It shows whether a person is speaking by God’s Spirit.

Verse 3

Evil *spirits oppose the *gospel message

Jesus Christ came as a man. A *spirit that does not agree with this cannot be from God. The false *spirit does not agree that Jesus is the *Christ. This *spirit will work by the false *Christ who will come in the future (1 John 2:18). This *spirit is already here in the world. It is working by those who oppose the *gospel.

Verse 4

God lives in you by his Spirit. And God is greater than the devil.

John puts ‘you’ first in the sentence. This is to impress them with the contrast. You, not the false teachers or those of the *world, are the ones who have overcome. You are from God.

Those who believe in the *Lord overcame the false *prophets. They refused to believe what the false *prophets taught. They refused to do what was not good. They did not join the group that left the church. Instead, they continued to believe what was true.

They were able to defeat the false teachers. The reason for this was that God was working by his people. God is in his people. And he is greater than the person who is in the *world. The person who is in the *world is the devil. The *world is all that opposes God.

God lives in us by his Holy Spirit. God has given the Spirit to be in us. The devil lives in those of the *world. So the *spirit of the false *Christ comes from the devil.

Verse 5

Christians belong to God, not to the *world

Those of the *world speak false things about the *Lord. The devil works in them to oppose the truth about Christ. They are from the *world. Therefore, they speak from the *world. Their ideas come from the *world and from the devil. For this reason those of the *world will listen to them.