Title: Spiritual Discernment / 1 John 4:1-6
When the apostle John was active, the early church faced many difficulties. However, it can be roughly divided into two categories.
1) External Persecution: Persecution by the Roman Empire
2) Inner confusion: the false teacher, the emergence of the antichrist
To overcome this, it was necessary to have confidence in God's love. God chose me to be a child of God, and I needed the assurance that God would answer our prayers and the assurance of eternal life. At the same time, since the advent of the false teacher, the Antichrist, disturbed the faith, it was necessary to have the ability to distinguish between true and false teachers, true and false prophets, and true and false prophets.
In verse 1 of the text, it says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God."
"Spirit" or "spirits" here does not refer to the Holy Spirit or evil spirits, but to "man". Don't believe everyone just because they're teachers, don't believe everything just because they're prophets. I mean don't trust everyone. Because there is a cult and there is a heresy.
It is not important to lead a life of faith, but to lead a life of right faith. If you fall into the wrong faith, you will ruin yourself and your family and cause great damage to society and the country.
That is, we need to discern whether the person belongs to the “Spirit of God,” that is, God, or the person who belongs to the “Spirit of Antichrist,” that is, the person who belongs to the Antichrist.
There are three theological presuppositions for heretical sects.
1) Adding or subtracting from the Bible is heresy.
2) Limiting or denying the redemptive work of Jesus Christ is heresy.
3) Even now, insisting on continuous revelation is heresy.
The Apostle John gave the saints at that time a standard for distinguishing between true and false teachers, true prophets and false prophets.
First Criterion: Those who deny the incarnation of Jesus
Verse 2-3 says, “By this you know the Spirit of God, that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. spirit," he said.
Second criterion: those who deny the divinity of Jesus
1 John 2:22 "Who is a liar? Does he not deny that Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist."
1 John 5:1 says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
Third Criterion: Knowing Who You Are Listening to
In verses 5-6 of the text, “We are of the world, and therefore we speak of the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and those who know God listen to us, and those who are not of God listen to us. No, but by this I know the spirit of truth and the spirit of delusion.”
Lastly, it is said that only when we have spiritual discernment can we win in the life of faith.
Verse 4 says, “Children, you are of God, and you have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
1) Our saints belong to God.
2) Our saints have overcome those who belong to the devil.
3) The secret of our victory is because the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.
1) Our saints belong to God. You are a child of God. Those who call God Father. Because they belong to God, they are with the spirit of truth.
2) Our members are victors.
In John 16:33 it says: In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world."
3) We can overcome the world because the victorious Lord is with us.
"Though I am weak, Your strength is strong.
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
"For everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who overcomes the world, except he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5)