Do not believe every spirit!!We wrapped up chapter 3 of the book of 1 John last week. And in it we talked about the implication of God’s love and also talked about the command to love one another. John ended chapter 3 with the following statement “And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” And today we’re going to talk about the nature of the Spirit God has given us as we begin to look at 1 John 4:1-6. This is probably one of the most important passages in Sacred Scripture. A couple of years ago, I was in a conversation with a lady in her early 50’s who had a nice disposition about her, very sweet and gentle. During our exchange she shared a lot about the kind things the people of her church were doing. And I proceeded to ask her a few questions about what her church believed about Jesus. And she went on to tell me about her pastor’s thoughts on God. She basically said that God had two sons, one named Jesus and the other satan. And Satan misbehaved while Jesus was the obedient one. Here is a lady that claims she believes in Jesus but also believes that satan is co equal with Jesus. No matter how nice, sweet, loving and full of acts of kindness her and the people of her congregation are, they don’t believe in what the Scripture teaches about the nature of the Godhead. This is why I believe 1 john 4:1-6 is such an important passage, it warns us against heresies , especially when they have to do with the identity of Christ.
The Passage:
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Do Not Believe Every Spirit
Scripture References
The presentation’s notes are available in the slideshow below
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My name is Tayib Salami and I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. In 2017, I entered a very dark time in my life and it’s only by the grace of the Living God that I’m still alive today. It led me to really go deeper in my faith and consider a myriad of questions that I never thought about asking myself or others before. Welcome and enjoy the ride with me.