Test the Spirits
1Dear 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. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but 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.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[1] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God's Love and Ours
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[2] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[3] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
The fourth chapter of 1 John is 21 verses in length. John has laid out three tests for discerning authentic Christianity, in others and in us, and he has gone back over the first (the moral) and the second (the relational) tests. In the first part of this chapter, he recovers the third (the doctrinal) test before moving back to the relational test of loving one another. To summarize, we could say that holiness is needed in the moral test; love is needed in the relational test; and discernment is needed in the doctrinal test. Let’s take a look:
1) V1-6 – 1Dear 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. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but 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. 4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
John wrapped up chapter three by declaring that we can know God lives in us by the Spirit He gave us. But it wasn’t enough for John to that. Then, as today, discernment was needed to distinguish between those who really had the Holy Spirit and those who merely claimed to have it. False teachers abounded back then (v1; 1 John 2:19), all claiming to have the Holy Spirit as their authority. And today, we have so-called experts in every field, but it can be difficult to discern whom to believe when they disagree. So John revisits the doctrinal test of authentic Christianity, commanding his audience not to believe every spirit but to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” John has said that the command of God is “to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). And now he says not to believe everything you hear about Jesus Christ. So discernment is needed. Holiness is needed in the moral test; love is needed in the relational test; and discernment is needed in the doctrinal test.
John tells us how to recognize the truth in v2 and how to recognize error in v3. He says, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 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.” Doctrinally, the early church was bombarded with false teachers claiming that Jesus was divine but not human. So here, the doctrinal test demands that we see the full humanity of Jesus. If a spirit denies that truth, then it is not from God. The fact that the question, “Is He human?” had to be asked is surely evidence for the truth of the gospel; for no one would wonder about Jesus’ humanity if He hadn’t conquered the grave. In conquering the grave, there was no doubt about Jesus’ divinity. It would be 200-300 years before false teachings claimed the opposite, that Jesus was merely human and not divine, that perhaps He didn’t really conquer the grave. But even that heresy was soundly refuted to such a degree that 1500 more years would pass before the suggestion arose again.
So spiritual discernment is crucial for authentic Christianity; while this can be a test of salvation, here John is thinking more of a test of living the Christian life. Surely the thief on the cross didn’t weigh Jesus’ humanity and divinity; rather, he trusted in Jesus and humbly asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His Kingdom. I suppose there’s the acknowledgement of divinity in that request. But thief was saved, and he didn’t have to wrestle with doctrinal issues. But we have lifetimes still to live, and we are called to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). That’s a call to spiritual discernment. John says, “As you grow in the knowledge of Jesus, you have to recognize His humanity.” As we yield our thoughts to the Word of God, led by the Spirit, we’ll succeed.
John also echoes back in v3 to his teaching from 1 John 2:18-22 regarding the antichrist. He says, “The spirit of the antichrist (who is coming) even now is already in the world.” And the message in v4 is that “you have overcome them.” Who is “them”? It’s the spirits of the antichrist, the false teachings that are nothing more than lies. And then in telling us how we have overcome them, John is teaching that this is a spiritual matter, not merely an intellectual matter. In other words, we haven’t overcome the evil spirits, the false teachings, by knowing more truth or by studying harder or even by checking our brains at the door on the way into church. Rather, we have overcome falsehood by the One who is in us. “The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” The true Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the victor for us and through us over the false spirits. He is how we have overcome; and He is how we know we are from God.
In v5-6, John gives the final verdict on the doctrinal test. The evil spirits, the false teachings about Jesus Christ, are “from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them” (v5). This is especially challenging truth in today’s culture of esteemed intellectual authority. Those wise people of the world who deny Biblical truth are from the world, not from God, and they speak from a materialistic, humanistic, relativistic, secular worldview; and sadly, the world listens to them. Sadly, many professing Christians listen to them. But we, living in the world, show that we are not of the world by holding fast to Biblical truth. When we believe God’s Word in the face of worldly denial, we prove that we know God. We shine brightly, reflecting the glory of the Creator, and we face persecution and mockery. The world declares us to be ignorant or intellectually diseased in some way. But John says in v6, “Whoever knows God listens to us (that is, the apostolic authorities); but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” And this is how spiritual discernment develops. The war is waged in the spiritual realm. We fight battles daily. Does the truth or the world win in your life?
2) V7-16 – 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His One and Only Son [or, Only Begotten Son] into the world that we might live through Him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for [Or, as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
John has said that the command of God is “to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). He has defended the doctrine of Jesus’ humanity and shown us how to be spiritually discerning. But that’s not the whole of 1 John 3:23. In fullness, it says that the command of God is “to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another.” John ties the doctrinal test to the relational test; you cannot love without believing the truth, and to believe the truth is for the sake of love, John might say. So 1 John 4:1-16 is his elaborating of 1 John 3:23. One preacher said, “People will say, ‘Oh, we need to stop talking about all this doctrine and love one another.’ As far as John is concerned, you cannot love like God calls you to love if you do not embrace the doctrine of God’s word, and the doctrine of God’s word has not wrought its purpose in your heart until you have a love for God and a love for your brethren and a love for your neighbor like He Himself has in His own heart and has expressed in the gift of His Son and has called us to live in His holy word, the Scripture. For John, you see, the truth and love go hand in glove. They go together, and they cannot be separated without damage to one or the other.” As John says in v7, “Let us love one another, for love comes from God.”
Right doctrine leads to right practice. Paul said to Timothy, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work – which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:3-5). God’s plan for evangelism is really simple: “Preach the word; love one another.” Orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy; if it doesn’t, then something is wrong with the doctrine, or at least with the person taking in the doctrine. Oftentimes, people of our day desire love in unity, and that’s a right desire. But we can’t have that without truth. The truth is for love; and John says that the one who loves (right practice) knows the truth, knows God and comes from God (right doctrine). The one who does not love (wrong practice) does not know God (wrong doctrine).
We tread lightly here, because there are many professing Christians who struggle with putting right doctrine into practice; and there are many professing Christians who struggle with right doctrine, even though they practice righteousness. But the doctrine that John is talking about is in regard to the Person of Jesus Christ. We can’t get that wrong and still love rightly, because “God is love” (v8). In other words, it is not that God’s essence is love, but rather that believers perceive God’s love as a chief, along with holiness, justice, and righteousness, of His characteristics. V9 mimics John 3:16, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His One and Only (or unique and eternal) Son into the world that we might (Greek hina clause declaring certainty, literally, “in order that we would certainly”) live through Him.” But that’s not all. John says in v10, akin to Paul in Romans 5:8, that love is God sending His Son to be propitiation, an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So God shows His love by sending His Son. But what is His love? It is not our love for Him; rather, it is Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. And in light of that kind of love, we ought to love one another (v11).
Throughout this letter, John has given reasons to love. One preacher says that he has argued, “We ought to love one another because it’s God’s command and Jesus has shown us how to keep that commandment (1 John 2:8-10), and we ought to love one another because it is the evidence that God has done a work of grace in us (1 John 3:14-16); but we also ought to love one another because God Himself is love and because He has loved us in the giving of His own Son (1 John 4:7-12).” V12 actually gives another reason to love: Our love for one another serves as a witness to the world of God’s love for us. God is unseen, but we are seen. And when we love rightly, in the truth, the world sees us; and in that, the world sees evidence for God and of His love. We mimic Jesus, who evidenced God’s love in the same way that we are called to do, by loving people selflessly in a practice commitment to self-giving. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). John is saying that we can effectively say the same thing by our love for one another. “Anyone who sees our love sees God’s love.”
Finally, in v13-16, John is saying, as one preacher put it, “‘All those who profess that Jesus is the Son of God sent into the world to save sinners are manifesting the fact that God the Holy Spirit has done a work in their hearts and He dwells in them.’ And he’s saying, ‘That is why that doctrinal truth, that affirmation that Jesus is the sinless Son of God come into this world into our human flesh to save sinners’ – that is why that truth is so important. It’s absolutely essential for salvation.” But John ties that doctrinal truth to love as well. The preacher goes on: “John is saying, ‘The reason that truth – the fact that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners – is so important is that is the supreme picture of love, and you can’t love unless you know that God has sent His Son into the world to save you.’ You can’t love like God calls you to love unless you embrace that truth.” And for the second time in this passage – first in v8 and now in v16 – John says that “God is love.” His love is shown in His covenant faithfulness and relentless pursuit of sinners in spite of their rebellion or indifference (Exodus 34:5-7). We love, because God loves. It’s profound, but it’s as simple as that.
3) V17-21 – 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because He first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John continues on the theme of loving one another in light of the fact that we live in God and have Him living in us by the Holy Spirit. Knowing and relying on God’s love (v16) by loving others is the way in which we gain confidence and assurance of salvation for the coming Judgment Day (v17). When we act like Jesus as a result of an inner transformation by the Holy Spirit, we can be reassured that we have peace with God. There is no need to fear, because love reigns in our lives. On the other hand, if we understand what John is saying and realize that we are afraid, it may very well be because we have not exhibited the love of God toward others that we know we should. Though we do well to note that perfected love casts out fear progressively, not all at once. John is teaching us that true love to God is always accompanied by love to our Christian brothers and sisters. The later tests and proves the former. When John says in v19, “We love because He first loved us,” he is saying that our actions toward others in selfless love prove that His love has first transformed us through faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Beginning in v20, John gives illustration to this truth. To profess love for God and yet to hate a fellow Christian (as seen by unloving action or unloving non-action) proves hypocrisy. John would call one who exhibits unloving behavior, or one who fails to exhibit loving behavior, a liar. This loving behavior is not easy to exhibit sometimes, especially with those we know best. But it’s a commitment, not a feeling. And it must be done. In the second half of v20, John declares that it is impossible to truly love the invisible God without loving the visible brothers and sisters in Christ in our lives. One preacher says, “Love for God expresses itself in a loving concern for fellow Christians, and a lack of such a love proves a lack of love to God.”
Finally, in v21, we have a command. It’s a command to double-love. And it’s essentially Jesus’ response when He was asked about the greatest command. Do you remember His answer? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That’s what John says here, “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” If you claim to obey the first part of what Jesus said, then you must obey the second part; for they are inseparable.
Footnotes
- 4:6 Or spirit
- 4:9 Or his only begotten Son
- 4:10 Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.