The Examiner

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

THE EXAMINER

1 John 4:1-3

4:1 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. 2 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, 3 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.

NIV

There had to be some false teachers who were saying that Jesus Christ may be the Son of God but that he did not come in the flesh. The person appeared as Christ was just that only an appearance, but not a real person. This would invalid the whole of his death on the cross and the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and his resurrection and ascension leading to ours. There was teaching at the time that Jesus was only a man and that he was not the Messiah and thus again no sacrifice for sin, no resurrection, and ascension. The whole of the gossip message, the whole of our faith depends on the Trinitarian God. This is why John tells us to test every spirit. Any spirit, any teacher that is from God will teach God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each his own person, but all three are God. In order for a teacher, or preacher to be from God, that is called by God to preach or teach His Word will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God. Jesus had to be fully man in order that he could be the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus also had to be fully God, for no man who was not divine, not God, could serve as a Lamb of God. In addition, anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as God also does not acknowledge His resurrection and ascension. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we have no hope of being raised either and if He did not ascend, then we have no one interceding before the Father for us. We have to believe it all or dismiss it all. There can be no compromise. There can be no belief in one aspect of Jesus and not in the whole of the truth concerning Jesus. Anyone who does not believe and thus teach anything other than Jesus came from God, and returned is an antichrist. We do not think John was referring to simply one person being the antichrist, for we know this singular antichrist will be Satan, as outlined for us in the revelation given to John sometime later. This antichrist, John is speaking about, most likely is a movement, or a group, such as the Judaizers, or Gnostics who went around teaching wrong doctrines. Today, we have different groups or even individuals who teach the wrong doctrine, and we have to test everything we hear against the Word of God. If what we hear is not the same as what the Word of God declares, what we read in the Bible than that person has not been called by God to teach or preach and they are operating completely in the flesh, and are a false prophet, an antichrist. We are the examiners, because we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, giving us the discernment to test who is and who is not from God. So we administer the test to every spirit.