Discerning Truth & Error 1John 4:1-6
REVIEW
The logic of John’s letter is really quite simple.
God is light (pure) and God is love (passionate).
Because of His great love, He invited us into His community or family.
Through the sacrifice of Jesus and ministry of the Holy Spirit we are reborn into His family.
As children of God we are encouraged and enabled to live purely and passionately.
Children of the God of light and love walk in the light and love the brethren.
I. THE GOD OF LIGHT AND HIS CHILDREN OF LIGHT 1-2
II. THE GOD OF LOVE & HIS CHILDREN OF LOVE 3-4
There are five factors to consider in relation to genuine children of God.
A. The “Likeness” factor 2:29-3:3
God invites us to be His children
B. The “righteousness/sin” factor 3:4-10
Children of the God of light practice righteousness
C. The “Love factor” 3:11-20
Children of the God of love love one another
D. The “obedience” factor 3:21-24
Children of God follow their Father’s instructions
E. The “confession” factor 4:1-6
True children of God confess Jesus and listen to His word
INTRODUCTION
Earlier (2:18-21) John warned of false prophets and teachers. He referenced the “anti-Christ” which would be the ultimate deceiver in the end times. Yet he warned them that the “spirit” of the anti-Christ was even then among them.
He returns here to this theme yet again and adds a test to determine the true from the false.
He will warn them yet one more time in his second letter.
John masterfully interweaves his themes.
The God of light and His children walking in the light as opposed to the god of this age and his children practicing sin.
The God of love and His children loving each other as oppose to the god of hate and murder and his children hating and murdering.
The Spirit of truth; the Holy Spirit anointing and indwelling the children of God to know and live by the truth.
The Spirit of error; the spirit of anti-christ blinding and indwelling the children of the world to deny and refuse to live by the truth.
The Old Testament addresses false prophets numerous times.
Jesus warned about false prophets
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15
Paul warned about false apostles.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:13-14
Peter warned of false prophets and teachers.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Peter 2:1
A false prophet or teacher is one who claims to speak truth on behalf of God.
Their message may be accompanied by supernatural signs and wonders.
The Scripture warns that signs and wonders are not a reliable validation of the message.
In the end times the ultimate false prophet will deceive the masses with impressive miraculous signs and wonders.
There are two kinds of false prophet/teacher/apostles.
Some are self deceived and pretended to speak for God in hopes of personal gain.
Others are “spirit” deceived; being fed enticing lies by demons leading God’s people astray.
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 1 Timothy 4:1
Many times the lies came through visions, dreams, enlightenment or prompting by an evil spirit opposed to the person and purpose of Christ (anti-christ).
Discerning between the true and false messengers was not always a sure thing.
Satan is a cleaver deceiver.
He taints a whole lot of truth with just enough lie to avoid detection but still bring destruction.
He has been able to effectively infiltrate the church today.
His lies have subtly permeated the airwaves and the printing presses to a frightening degree.
John provides some specific tests to help us discern between the true and the false spirit.
Is the message or teaching from a demonic spirit or the Holy Spirit?
Are these messengers of God or Satan?
The Holy Spirit came to reveal all truth, anoint, bear witness to the truth, inspire.
Evil spirits seek to counterfeit and twist the truth with their lies.
We may be confronted by a deceiving spirit directly or through a person being influenced by a deceiving spirit.
Ultimately then, it is either the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of truth or the spirit of anti-Christ; the spirit of error that seeks to influence people’s thinking.
All those who claim to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit may not speak for Him.
We find two chief tests in this passage, and four additional tests elsewhere that identifies the validity of prophets and their prophesies and teachers and their teaching.
I will briefly comment on this passage and them give you six test to apply to any teacher or teaching or thought that may appear in your mind.
1. Actively test the origin of every teaching
Beloved, 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
“Beloved” = warning of a caring father.
“stop believing every spirit”
Evidently the believers were passively accepting every teacher and teaching that merely claimed they were speaking on God’s behalf.
The false teachers claimed this super spirituality and anointing.
They were urging the church members to come to them to receive this super-knowledge and enlightenment from God.
John already addressed this issue earlier.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 2:20-21
John urged them to test the origin of all teaching as to whether it was from God or Satan.
Why? Because many Christ-opposers (anti-christs) are already in the world.
The sense of the perfect tense verb indicates they have “gone out and are still out there”.
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared (perfect tense again); from this we know that it is the last hour. 2:18
Therefore it is necessary to be discerning and careful who you listen to.
It is necessary to test both teaching and teacher against the truth.
This command is a present tense imperative = keep on testing EVERY teaching and teacher.
2. The Holy Spirit always affirms the person and work of Christ. 4:2
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God
You can discern the origin of the teaching and teacher by their by their affirmation of the foundational teaching concerning the person and work of Christ.
If the teacher and teaching speaks from the Holy Spirit it will “confess” personal agree and embrace a specific truth concerning Christ.
This truth has to do with the nature of Jesus Christ.
They must embrace the fact that the eternal Christ came to earth and forever took on humanity in order to reconcile man to God.
The false teachers claimed that the Christ nature came on the human Jesus at His baptism and left at His crucifixion.
The cults error both sides of this truth.
He was not truly God or He was not truly human.
The Scripture teaches that he was, is and will ever manifest his full and complete humanity along with His full and complete divinity.
This is indicated again by the use of the perfect tense verb.
Jesus has come in the flesh (come and still bears a human nature).
Anyone claiming to speak by the Holy Spirit will affirm and embrace this truth of Christ’s incarnation (taking on of humanity.)
We will expand on this a bit later.
3. The unholy spirit (anti-christ) rejects the person and work of Christ 4:3
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 1 John 4:3
Here is the flip side.
To confess Jesus is to agree with, personally embrace Jesus; all He is and came to do.
Satan can intellectually acknowledge Jesus but will not embrace Him or affirm His person and work.
He is anti-Christ, against Christ.
4. God’s children overcome by the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. 4:4
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
The thought of anti-Christ’s pervasive presence in the world already would have been disturbing.
How can I avoid deception?
How can we ever hope to get victory?
John quickly reassures them that they have no reason to fear.
They can and already have overcome their attempts to disseminate their evil teaching.
They have overcome (perfect tense = overcome and still are victorious) because of the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit who is greater than any and all evil spirits and anti-Christ who are in the world.
5. The world will listen to their own who speak from the world 4:5
They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
False teacher get a hearing from the world because they speak their language.
6. God’s children listen to God’s messengers who are from God. 4:6a
We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:6
The use of “we” is most likely a primary reference to the authorized messengers; namely the apostles.
“he who knows God” then refers to the rest of God’s followers.
God’s followers listen to the clear word of God spoken through the inspired writers of Scripture.
7. You can discern truth and error by paying attention to the Word. 4:6b
By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:6
By what? By listening to the Word!
THE FIVE TESTS OF FALSE TEACHERS AND THEIR TEACHING
We will get stated today on six Biblical tests to apply to false teaching and false teachers.
The first two we have already introduced in our current passage.
1. The centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ
Any teaching that does not make Christ absolutely central to its teaching is suspect.
They must neither diminish his deity nor deny his humanity.
Since His conception by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary’s womb He is forever the God/Man.
He is full and absolute deity and full and complete humanity.
John proclaimed this most extraordinary truth at the beginning his gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. John 1:1-4
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Paul proclaimed His deity and centrality to the Colossians.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, Colossians 1:15-19
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:1-3
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 1:1-4
Any teacher or teaching that either diminishes His deity or denies His humanity does not come from the Holy Spirit but a deceiving spirit.
In John’s day, it was the Gnostics who denied Christ’s human nature.
The obvious groups today are Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who deny the deity of Christ and others who claim that Jesus was just a good man or even a great prophet.
In light of the undeniable claims of Jesus himself, the good man belief falls apart.
The only three viable choices are, he was liar, lunatic or the Lord he claimed to be.
There is also new age teaching which ignores the person of Christ and looks to the Christ principle or Christ seed in every person.
Any teaching or teacher that does not keep the emphasis on Christ and his redemptive work should be suspect.
Even an over emphasis on the Holy Spirit should be carefully considered.
He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16:14
In some teaching today the Holy Spirit’s ministry takes precedence over the ministry of Christ.
“Oh yes, I received Jesus but then I was baptized by the Holy Spirit.”
Not only do we need to keep the nature of Christ clear and central but also his work.
Any teaching that complicates the Gospel message of Christ and him crucified is suspect.
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Cor 2:2
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Gal 6:14
Any teaching that denies that Jesus Christ is the only way to the father must be rejected.
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I (Paul) was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 1 Timothy 2:5-7
The Holy Spirit urges absolute devotion to Christ.
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3
The enemy attempts to distract from the centrality of Christ in the world and in our life.
For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Cor 11:2-3
Paul kept his focus on Christ razor sharp.
for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh… whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philip 3:3, 7-11
We should also consider carefully any teacher who draws attention to himself rather than be a signpost pointing to Jesus.
Many today are out to build their own kingdoms rather than the kingdom of God.
Peter warned about the false prophets with wrong motives.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3
"For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. Jeremiah 6:13
Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry, "Peace," but against him who puts nothing in their mouths they declare holy war. Micah 3:5
Follow the money.
Follow the glory.
Follow the power.
If Christ is not considered before everything, the Holy Spirit is not behind anything.
There are four other tests we will continue next week.
2. The centrality and authority of the word of Christ
3. Practice and promotion of the purity of Christ
4. Practice and promotion of obedience to Christ
5. Practice and promotion of the love of Christ
