The fifth test that proves if you really love God deals with true and false teachers. You can tell if someone really loves God by the spirits of the teachers they are following. Following the spirit of a true teacher is an indication that you love God. In contrast, following the spirit of a false teacher proves that you don’t love God.
So we must test the spirits of teaching throughout the world. Today we are going to look at four areas of testing these spirits.
1. Testing the spirits of teachers.
2. Testing the confession of teachers.
3. Testing ourselves.
4. Testing the followers of teachers.
READ 1 JOHN 4: 1
Believers can be misled. John knew this. So he opens this passage by saying don’t believe every spirit. Because some of them might be false. He says to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. How do you do that? It’s not always easy to tell because:
• False teachers may have a spirit of light. That spirit seems to present a way of life that seems to be the truth, the very way to live. He presents a way of life that seems to be intelligent and full of knowledge and enlightenment. It seems to be the way you would want to go. The way that leads to the good life, progress, pleasure, good feelings.
• A false teacher may have the spirit of righteousness. He may preach righteousness, a righteousness that stresses morality, goodness, giving, serving, and helping.
• A false teacher may stress the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. They may stress all the good qualities of life, all the traits that characterize good people. They may tell people to copy the life of Jesus and to focus their hearts on the good qualities of life.
But false teachers make one fatal mistake. John covers that in the next 2 verses. But the point here is that we must test the spirits of false teachers. Test them to make absolutely sure they are of God. Note that John says there are many false prophets. If there were many in John’s day, think of how many more there are today. Paul told the Corinthians to do the same when he wrote, “3For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”
So, since these false teachers are so crafty in disguising themselves, how do we know the difference? How do you test the spirits to see if they are of God? READ VERSES 2 & 3. In other words, test the confessions of the teachers. What is it that makes a teacher true or false? Jesus Christ.
Notice, too, what it is about Jesus Christ that exposes the teacher. The incarnation. The fact that God became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ. The true spirit acknowledges that Jesus did come in the flesh. It takes the indwelling Spirit of God for a true teacher to confess the fact that God became man. Folks, there are religions out there today that cannot and will not confess that fact. And many of them knock on your door every Saturday morning. Beware of the false teachers.
So remember that a true teacher will always acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. John wrote a familiar verse in another of his books and I proclaim it today, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. “
The false teacher or spirit will deny the incarnation. They will deny that Jesus is from God. Many false religions will talk about Jesus, but they only see Him as a prophet, a smart man, but never the Son of God. Why?
1. Because the false teacher doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.
2. The false teacher doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah and the Anointed One from God.
3. The false teacher doesn’t acknowledge Jesus as sinless.
4. He doesn’t acknowledge that Jesus was the substitute for man’s sins.
5. He doesn’t acknowledge that the resurrection ever took place.
False teaching denies that Jesus is of God and so the false teaching denies that man can ever be saved from this world. The physical world cannot penetrate or cross over into the spiritual world, no matter what some persons on TV may claim.
The false teacher destroys the hope of salvation. The false teacher destroys the idea of spending eternity with God. The false teachers make us think we can talk to our dead loved ones and that they will answer us. They make us feel that we don’t have a need for accepting Christ so that we can enter heaven and see our loved ones again. They make us feel that we can do that right now. FALSE TEACHERS.
READ VERSE 4. Sing. In this verse John is essentially telling us that we need to test ourselves. How do we do that? There are two ways.
1. Simply ask yourself if you are from God. Have you been born of God? 1 John 2:29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.”
2. Ask yourself if you are overcoming the spirits of false teachers. The verse says, “The Spirit of God is in you and He is far greater than the evil spirits of false teachers.” He enables you to conquer false teachers. So if you are following a teacher that denies that Jesus is the Son of God then YOU are not of God.
Now, false teachers are persuasive. They are very personable, attractive, and appealing, full of charisma. Their ideas and teachings sound reasonable and appealing. But if a person has been truly born of God, he has the Holy Spirit to help him see the error of the teaching.
Verse 4 says that you have overcome them. The Spirit of God never fails. So test yourself. Can you confess that:
• Jesus was God in the flesh?
• The righteousness and sinlessness of Jesus Christ?
• The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
• That Jesus ascended into heaven and is now exalted?
If you can confess all this then more than likely you are born of God. Paul writes to us from the book of Romans and says, “9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. . . 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Paul said to the Corinthians and to us, “12 Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.
13 And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit].”
So test yourself and make sure you are born of God. Make sure that you have not been misled by some false teaching. Make sure that you haven’t been tricked by some TV program. Make sure that you have not been misinformed by some cult that stopped by on Saturday morning.
READ VERSES 5 & 6. Lastly we must test the followers of teachers. We can look at the people who follow teachers and we can tell whether that teacher is false or not. And here is how we do that. And verse 5 tells us.
False teachers are from the world. They have only a natural birth. They have never been born of God, never been spiritually born. The Spirit of God does not dwell in their hearts.
False teachers speak from the viewpoint of the world. That means they teach a worldly or human approach to God.
- That man reaches God by being good and doing good.
- That man becomes acceptable to God by living a religious life and doing religious things like being confirmed, baptized, going to church, confessing, and keeping the rituals and ceremonies.
- That man gets God’s approval by combing his spirit w3ith God’s Spirit through communion and through righteous deeds.
If you will look closely, you will see that these approaches to God center and focus upon man and what he does. They are not centered on God and what God has done to save man.
Another way we can tell whether a teacher is false or not is by noticing that the world listens to false teachers. Why? Because the message of false teachers appeals to man. If they don’t teach that Jesus Christ has come to earth then there is no infallible rule to govern man. So man is pretty much free to find his own way to God the best he can. But I am reminded folks that “we are saved by the grace of God through faith, not of works.”
On the other hand, verse 6 tells us that true teachers are followed by people who know God. They acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to earth in fleshly form.
If the follower of the teacher believes in the incarnation, the righteousness of Jesus, the fact that Jesus died for man’s sins, and the resurrection, then you can be sure their teacher is a true teacher.
Note what the verse says: those who know God are the followers of the true teacher, but those who are not from God do not hear the true teacher. This is the way we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. We can tell a true teacher by the people who follow him. What kind of life do they live—a worldly or righteous life?
So test the spirits of the teachers. Test their confession. Test yourselves. Test the followers of the teachers. We need to be sure where they are coming from and where they are leading others.
And if we have that spirit of testing the spirits of false teachers, we pass test #5 that proves that we really LOVE God.
