The Little Letters - Day 15

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

Here we see the epistle shift a little. The previous section talked about what it means to be children of God. Now we see a long section about belief and love. As well, there is a warning to understand the spirit behind any prophetic announcement. We are not to just take what someone says as gospel because they say that it is. There are some rules for love and belief. They begin with the acknowledgment that Jesus was real.
 
Why did this matter to them? And why should it matter to us?
 
It mattered to them in that there were some who were teaching that Jesus wasn’t really God, or he wasn’t really human. This was a Christological heresy that had to be addressed. John sought to nip that in the bud right from the beginning. You don’t have to listen to those who claim Jesus to be something less than God and something less than human.
 
Sometimes we are so anxious and ready to hear from God that we interpret the words of people who claim to be from God as prophetic. This is what was happening in the churches for which John was responsible. They desperately wanted to know God’s will and hear his voice.
We have all been guilty of moments like this in our lives as well. We all want to hear the voice of God, and sometimes we are willing to listen to lesser voices claiming they speak for God. But there are a few things we need to consider. We first need to consider if they represent the authentic teachings of Jesus. If you are not sure, then it is time to test what they are saying. There are so many resources available to test someone’s ideas, so we should have no problem doing this. You can also ask them questions.
 
It is not as hard as you think to test someone’s words about God. We have scripture, which is literally the words of Jesus, his life, and teachings for us to see. So when you get a sense that something is wrong, test what they say through the words of scripture.
 

1. Have you ever heard any teaching that made you concerned you were being led astray? 
2. How can you test the words of someone? 
3. Do you know why you believe the way you do now? It may be time to delve more deeply into where your beliefs come.