1 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.
John instructed the reader: “Do not believe every spirit but test the spirits.” The purpose of testing the spirits is to see if they were from God or the false prophets. The Spirit will never contradict what God says. He will not deny Jesus is the incarnated Son of God. If they deny Jesus is the Son of God who came in the flesh, then they are not from God. As Jesus said in John 16:13, His Spirit will lead us to all truth. Not Satan’s lies! Satan will only deceive us but God’s Spirit will expose all lies and all falsehood.
As believers, we must live in the truth and not in falsehood. Yet, there are those who claim to know Jesus but still live in sin. These people do not know God. They may know Him intellectually but do not have a personal relationship with Him. They have not experienced God’s power working in their lives through the Spirit. They only know Him from listening to sermons or reading the scripture without experiencing His power in their lives.
But for the readers, John said, “You are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The implication is we can live in the truth. But sadly, many who claim to know God but are still living in disobedience to God and even His appointed leaders. As John said, “Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” (underscore is mine) The reason is they only listen to themselves. Thus, John said they are from the spirit of error, and not from the Spirit of truth!
It is easy for us to be deceived by all kinds of lies including those we tell ourselves. In fact, we deceive ourselves better than anyone else. We are also good at justifying so we can continue to live in falsehood instead of live in the truth. Therefore, “do not believe every spirit.” We must test every spirit carefully even our own spirit as we are good at deceiving ourselves!
Father, I pray that I will be honest with myself as I can easily deceive myself! I must also be careful that I will not be deceived by the spirit of this world so that I will live in the truth.
