1 John 4:1-6

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?