John discusses a very interesting topic: false spirits and false prophets. This topic shows up quite frequently, both in the New and Old Testaments. (like in Deut 18:14-21, 1 Kings 22:13-28, and Matthew 12:43-45). I hope to show how John teaches us is how to discern whether or not if a spirit (teaching, philosophy, worldview, passion) is from God, or something else…

John starts off the passage with a critical command. He tells us:

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. (1 John 4:1)

Something that I think we often tend to forget is that outside of Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, and Satan, the Bible teaches us that there are many spiritual forces that reside in our world (Eph 6:12 – the ‘armor of God verses). We will often think of them as “supernatural forces,” far away - but they are closer than we think. These forces can even exist in everyday things like materialism, or racism, extremism etc. John describes these forces as “from the world” and support the values of the world.

Sunday I will show that it all rests on Jesus. If the spirit (worldview) acknowledges that Jesus is Lord and is from God, then we know it’s legitimate. But, if the spirit fails to acknowledge Jesus, who is from God, then it’s not from God, but rather, is the “spirit of the antichrist” as John discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. Let's not be fooled! Come Sunday and hear how God’s Word protects us – by teaching truth and testing error.

Pastor Mike

“Jesus will be at the center of every truth!”