Test the Spirits

Faith in Action

The Early Church Proclaims Faith in Christ

Faith in Jesus

1 John 4:1-6 The Message 

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

4 My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
2-3 Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4-6 My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world’s language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.

For Reflection

Judging the authenticity of teaching and preaching the gospel is not an easy task. Many who openly confesses faith in Jesus may not or may believe that he or she is truthful to the gospel but in reality is not. Many have difficulty with the whole idea of judging teachers and preachers.  We are warned many times in the scriptures that evil cloaks itself in good to deceive us.

Here is where it is important that Christians study the scriptures and know Christian doctrine.  The lack of knowledge makes us vulnerable to deception. One test is to compare the doctrine teachers and preachers profess with what was revealed to us through scripture; not just selections of passages which support a particular position, but which reflect the full intention of God's will.

Secondly, ask, "What are the fruits of such doctrine?" Do the teachings lead others to love forgiveness, kindness, and grace?  

Pray

Pray for those who have been deceived by false teaching.  Pray for the teachers who by intent or ignorance of the word mislead others away from God.  Pray so that you can strengthen your understanding of how to practice your faith and shield yourself from false preaching.

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