Testing the Spirits

Pr. Asap Singh

Scripture Portion: I John 4:1-6

1. 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.
2. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3. 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.
4. You, 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.
5. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
6. We 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.

The Epistle I John was written as a timely advice for the persecuted church under Roman Empire. John the key apostle was the last living witness for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Purpose of Writing:

• John meant to say Believers as the overcomers of the worlds through their faith and testimony in the Lord.
• He also councils the believers to stand against the false teachings and heresies, which is the key part in the 4^th chapter of I John.

Place of Writing: Ephesus

• Apostle John lived here in the last days of his life
• It was the intellectual center of Asia (Near Greece)
• Paul warned the future decay of the church through the false teachers (Act. 20:28-31), where false teachers are referred as the wolves.
• In I Jn 4:1-6; it was explicitly the warning against the prominent philosophical trend “Gnostism” 

• Knowledge is Supreme to be saved (gnosis)
• Matter is evil – Spirit is good (Materialism)
• Jesus was a spirit being – did not die on the cross

In this passage John deals with the Spirit of the Lord and the false spirits or prophets. Various terms used in connection with the Spirit here.

Spirit of God (v.1), Spirit of Antichrist (v.3), Spirit of Truth (v.6), Spirit of Falsehood (v.6). The advice given by the apostle in twofold to stand firm in the Lord.

(I) TEST THE SPIRITS (V.1)

Test is the key term in science to believe something. The test will prove whether something gives positive or negative impact. Scientific proof will make a theory, and sometimes the old theory will be revised and become false. John Dalton’s atomic theory was falsified by Rutherford’s theory.

Test (πειρασμός) – KJV says “try” which means examine or scrutinize the spirit working in men, especially the men of God. Bible commands us to test the Spirits working in men. Some preachers and teachers looking like genuine teachers but different Spirit working in them! (Om Santhi women acting like Pentecostal Christian women). Sometimes we are deceived because of the miracles and signs, or the impact of their message or the usage of the Name Jesus. But we should always have in our mind, the following two things,

• Demons confess and Preach Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of the World (Jam 2:19)
• God can use demon to fulfill his purposes (Job 1:7-12)

The Standard or scale of testing them is through the Word of God, Bible is the measuring rod for finding the genuineness of the preachers.

(II) RECOGNIZE THE SPIRIT (V.2, 6)

Recognizing whether something is true or false is a type of examination question pattern. Recognize means Analyze or Experience or check something with their fruits. The false teachers/ prophets/ Spirits will be identified through these measurements as per the writing of John. They are,

• False Spirits/Teachers will not acknowledge the humanity of Jesus (v.2-3)

As we saw the heresy “Gnostism” which denied the humanity of Jesus Christ. In that context John writes this epistle, Gnostics hold this view because flesh belongs to sinfulness. If it is so Jesus can not be God, “God can not sin.” John emphasizes again and again the humanity of Jesus in his writings (John 1:14, I John 5:6).

At the same time Jesus was completely God. Christian theology holds some of the critical doctrines, which are mysteries awaiting for reveling. Some of them are.

• Hypostatic union of Jesus (Jesus God and man at the same time)
• Trinity (God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit but we have ONE God)
• Sinlessness of Christ (Impeccability of Christ)
• Virgin Birth (Jesus born of Mary)

If John would have written today he would have mention the other side of Jesus’ nature, “The divinity of Christ” which is being denied by Islam, Jehovah Witness, New age movements …etc. False teachers and preachers deny either the humanity or divinity of Christ. But the Bible affirms Jesus as both human and divine.

• False Spirits/Teachers speaking in the viewpoint of men (v.5)

Today many of the liberal theologians speaking of the possibility or probability of Biblical messages. If something is impossible to believe today, it becomes never happened issue in their understanding or myth.

Some of the incidents of the bible looked in the view point of men today and announced as myth are, The crossing of Red sea, Genesis 1-11, and Joshua and Sun Stand Still. A genuine preacher will speak everything in the view point of God, with the eye of faith. It will be beyond the boundary of human understanding and complete faith on God and His Words.

God the Holy Spirit makes us to enlarge our sight, and making us to see in the view point of God. (John 16:13) An Elephant when it is bound with a chain in her master, it roams only in the boundary of the chains. But one day when it gets mad it breaks the chain and goes beyond the chains, the Holy Spirit makes us to believe beyond our thinking and looking in the view point of God.

• False Spirits/Teachers do not know God personally (v.6)

They may have some esthetic feelings and experiences but they never knew God personally. They never experienced salvation, but operated by the devil to corrupt the plans of God.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa testified that he experienced God every now and then. Prophesied, Healed, done Wonders but never knew the Lord as a false teacher. Not by the miracles or Prophesies a genuine teacher will be identified (Mat. 7:21-23). God enables His people to distinguish the truth from falsehood. God gives the discerning Spirit to know something from God or Demon. Therefore we should recognize the Spirits whether they are from God by these measures. 

May God bless you abundantly.