1 John 4:1 (ESV)
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.
The use of the word beloved means basically, “The one God loves the most!”
False prophets—those who twist God’s word for their own purposes—are driven by spirits that are not of God. These spirits perform actions that appear to be from God and may deceive those who are not grounded in the Word or discerning. They can heal, fake prophecies (psychics, astrologers, horoscopes, witchcraft, Ouija boards, and so on), and they can even proclaim God’s miracles, like the girl following Paul and Silas (Acts 16: 16-18), among other things.
Acts 16:16-18
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
You might think that her proclaiming God’s glory and identifying them as men of God would be positive, but Paul understood that the spirit was doing this only to boast about its effectiveness and demonstrate its power.
False prophets and evil spirits are all about glorifying themselves, gaining power and prestige so they can be honored and even worshiped. A true prophet will always glorify and honor God, leading you to Him rather than to themselves.
1 John 4: 2,3
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.
Is John merely saying here that every spirit that recognizes Jesus has come in the flesh is from God? If that were true, then the demons who recognized Jesus before he cast them out into the pigs would be considered from God, as seen in Matthew 8:28-34, as well as in other passages like Matthew 3:11 and Luke 4:34; 4:41. In each of these passages, the demons recognize Jesus in the flesh. However, the implication here is much greater than merely having a spirit acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh; it is recognizing that Jesus is who he said he is, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he is God. There are many spirits in the world that recognize Jesus as a God, but they don’t recognize Jesus as God, the second part of the Trinity. Any spirit that does not recognize Jesus, as God is the spirit of the antichrist.
1 John 4: 4-6
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.
These spirits belong to the world, and the people they control are also part of it, so understand that they will not listen to you unless the Lord reaches them. Trust the Holy Spirit to work through you to reach them because the one who is in you is greater than every spirit that is in the world. Don’t get frustrated by the spirits’ rejection of you; it is God who empowers you to overcome. The power of the world keeps people in bondage, but the Spirit of God within you can set them free because He is greater than the spirit that controls them! We will be confident because we are walking in the Spirit of truth, which I believe will also cause us to walk in love, as we see in the next verses.
1 John 4: 7-12
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
John repeats again, “You are the one God loves the most.” With that in mind, we are called to love one another. There are enough divisions in the world, so we don’t need any in the church. Yes, we will not all hold the same beliefs regarding theology, and that’s OK as long as we believe in the essentials of faith, including who Jesus is, the Trinity, and how we are saved. There will always be things that seek to divide us, but if our focus is on Jesus, we will always be united. The Holy Spirit conveys that the true evidence of our following Christ and being Christians is our love for one another because one of the key attributes of God is His love. The Holy Spirit, through John, reminds us that the only way to live out this love is by being born again. We recognize that our Adamic nature cannot love the way God intends us to love, and we must believe that God sent His one and only Son for us to live through Him. When John states, “Jesus is God’s one and only Son,” that can be a little confusing because we are also sons and daughters of God. However, the Greek phrase indicates that Jesus is of the same essence as God, and He is God. This is why it is so important for us to understand what real love is, and we can’t do that unless we realize we need to be born again, born of the Spirit. Recognizing that God came in the flesh and paid the full penalty for sin, He took our place so God’s justice could be established, and grace could flow to us. When we understand this, then God’s love can truly flow through us.
We always need to remember, as verse 10 states, that before you could ever conceive of loving God and before you were created, as Ephesians 1:4 states, God knew you, chose you, and loved you! After all, it is God who came in the flesh, shed His blood on a cross, and then rose again in a renewed human body that could be touched and held; He ate. He did this because He first loved us!
You might be confused about verse 12 that no one has ever seen god, but this is just the repeat of an idea that John wrote in his gospel chapter 1 verse 18.
John 1:18
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
John is saying that no one has ever seen the Father except the Son, but we see God through His Son, who is also God!
1 John 4:13
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
John is connecting what was just written with what he is about to write. We show we are filled with God’s spirit by both our love for other believers and our love for God.
1 John 4:14-17
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
Romans 10:9 confess with mouth and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead
The Holy Spirit is revealing to us that we can find peace, knowing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior because we have confessed Him as the one and only Son of God, and He lives in us. This gives us confidence in our salvation. It should bring us peace to know that God’s love lives in us and that daily we are maturing in our love for Him. We don’t have to worry or fear what will happen to us at the end of our lives; we don’t even have to worry or fear being condemned because God’s love will constantly draw us to Him and remind us of who He is and how much He loves us.
1 John 4:18,19
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
Because we know this love, we don’t have to worry about hell or the judgment of God. We now have full confidence in his love for us, that he is maturing us every day and maturing our love to an understanding of who He’s called us to be. We recognize that we don’t love out of our own strength but we love because he first loved us and poured his spirit into us because he is love.
The assurance of our salvation is found in our love. As we love, we show who God is! That love must be for God and from God. And it must be lived out toward our brothers and sisters.
1 John 4: 20,21
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Hating one another, holding unforgiveness, and resenting each other are all signs that reveal your lack of understanding of God’s great love for you. They also indicate a misunderstanding of who God is. God isn’t saying that it’s easy to love everyone; rather, He expects us to allow His love to flow through us. The more we surrender to Him, the more of His love flows through us, enabling us to love Him and one another. That is how the world will know that we are truly His disciples.
There are many things out there that seek to distract us from what is essential to God. There are many people who teach non-essentials but do not grasp what is truly essential. There are numerous ways that the world, the flesh, and the Devil aim to divide the church. We must adhere to the essentials. Those essentials are loving God and loving one another.
Many of us were raised in situations where love was limited. We have been wounded and broken because of the circumstances in our lives and the way we have been treated. It is hard to think about loving people, and at times, even hard to consider loving God the way He wants us to. God understands that. That’s why He says, “I am love. You can live on your own, but if you surrender to Me, I will fill you with My love. I will heal you, and I will make it possible for you to love others in a way that fulfills you and blesses Me.”
If you are having a hard time accomplishing what God is saying through chapter 4 please come to the front and allow someone to pray for you. Allow the love of God to be poured into you in a way that heals you and you were able to feel it so that you can easily pour it out into others. God will do that today for you. He will do it right now. Let him love you.