The Test

The test

1 John 4:1-6

Close your books, take out a sheet of paper and a pencil. It’s time for a quiz.   

Remember how those words struck terror in your hearts in school? Teachers seemed to love pop quizzes back then. No, we’re not going to take a test today, no quizzes here. Maybe later, but not now. Not this morning. But that happened quite a lot in my college days. But I had learned a hard lesson.  

I went to college right out of high school. I thought I was ready, but those first two years were an emotional rollercoaster and an educational disaster. I was on the bench list several times and in danger of being asked to leave. I was distracted by a girl, to whom I eventually became engaged. When she decided to change colleges, I decided to follow her. It was a disaster and the relationship was doomed for a number of reasons. The main reason was that she didn’t take her faith as seriously as I took mine – and, honestly, I wasn’t all that serious. I spent some time in southern California and then a summer in Alaska, worked a month on a dairy farm on Whidbey Island, and finally decided that, if God had called me, I’d better get serious about my obedience. So, I went back to college, this time with determination. I was a Junior with a poor record, but determined to be serious about my studies. Marsha came in that year as a Freshman and a romance developed - slowly - that didn’t detract (this time) from my studies. I had work to do. And my grades showed the change.   

One thing I learned was preparation. While my roommate played pool and watched television with his friends during the day, and then studied late into the night, I took my breaks between classes to read the textbooks and write my papers. And made myself get to bed by 10:00 every school night. I went to sleep with my roommate’s desk light on. I was prepared and rested, so that when the prof announced a quiz, I was ready. And scored well. Not so my roommate - not rested, not ready, and fearful of the weekly quizzes. Preparation was the key.  

That’s what John has been trying to tell us – and do with us.

One other thing I learned from my professors those last two years – don’t believe everything you hear, read, or see. Develop a healthy skepticism. Question the sources. Develop the capacity for rational thought and read as if you are looking for counterfeits and fakes. In other words, do what John begins with in our text this morning – test the spirits. When a politician proposes a program, I want to know what any unintended or hidden consequences there might be. I want to know his agenda - what’s he trying to do. During the Covid years, every time some “Health” official or politician issued some new directive, I was skeptical. I read the research and knew that most of what they were trying to tell us was incorrect.   

I began studying other religions and cults when I was in college. A fellow student who was an ex-Mormon was the first one to give me information. When I wrote a paper and mentioned that Mormonism bore similarities to an early church heresy, the professor told me that I was out of line for criticizing from the outside. Well, I wasn’t going “inside,” so I began to gather materials. I have studied other religions, now, for about 50 years. Recently, there have been a number of preachers, self-styled “bishops” and “apostles,” who have gathered large followings. Most of them spout heresy, but because many Christians are unprepared, they don’t recognize the falsehoods. These “apostles” invoke the Holy Spirit to “cast out demons” and “heal” the sick. People will go into convulsions, fall down en masse, or just lie on the floor as if dead. All the preacher has to do is wave his suit jacket around or blow in their direction and people fall over. Some of these charlatans even have staff on the platform to catch people when they fall. Many of them perform their “miracles” for a fee, but they all seem to dun their audiences for money. I watched one such tell a woman to sell her house and tithe the proceeds to him – but he couched it in religions words, “The Holy Spirit is telling me that you should ...” I won’t name names this morning, but I could.  

So, how do we know they are false prophets, false “apostles”? I heard some years ago that the U.S. Treasury trains agents to spot counterfeit money in an unusual way. They put them in a room with real money, and instruct the agent to feel it, smell it, wrinkle it, tear it, burn it, and look at it closely in a microscope. They are to learn how real money feels, smells, looks, and what happens when you try to destroy it. They are to be so familiar with real money that they can instantly recognize when something is not - even if they can’t tell you why. The counterfeit doesn’t pass the smell test, or the burn test. It doesn’t feel right; it doesn’t tear right; it doesn’t wrinkle right. The way to learn what is false is to be so familiar with the truth that even if you can’t tell why you know it’s false, you just know because it doesn’t somehow match what you know to be true. 

That’s what John is telling us to do. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to know if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world. Do not believe everything you hear, read, or see on social media or television. A man who was a news presenter in Portland some years ago, made a comment about knowing God’s will, and not believing what pastor Jim-Bob says. I don’t want you to believe any pastor, even myself, unless what we say agrees with the Scripture. I told you a couple weeks ago that I read a social media post about the translation of a particular verse. My first reaction was to go to the Bible, and the Greek, to see if what they said was true. Paul commended the Jews of Berea, calling them of more noble character because, rather than just accepting or rejecting out of hand the message he brought, they examined the Scriptures ... to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11). Christians are suckered every day into cults and heresies because they do not search the Scriptures to see if what is being said is true. 

 Why test the spirits? John has already told us when he spoke of the many antichrists that were already in the world. Now, he adds to that. There are many false prophets. Let me just clarify something here: prophecy is not just about the future. Prophecy is not only predictive; it is also prescriptive. If you read the Old Testament prophets carefully, you will see how little they actually predict the future. They reveal God’s broken heart and the consequences the follow. There is a lot of “unless you change, God is going to,” but that’s often based on their understanding of the blessings and curses from Deuteronomy. There is a lot of “mend your ways” preaching. Prophecy is revelatory in that it reveals the heart of God. Most of the prophets’ work was preaching the truth of God.  Jeremiah was a preacher; Isaiah was a preacher; Amos was a  preacher; Micah, Jonah, and Malachi were preachers.  The prophet’s job is to preach the word of God.

So when John says there are many false prophets, understand that he is talking about preachers who preach a false gospel; preachers who care more about health and happiness than about holiness; preachers who care more about private jets than about Jesus; preachers who perform miracles rather than pursue maturity of faith. There are preachers who preach a false Jesus, who preach an effeminate Jesus, who fuss and fret about Jesus’ skin color, who preach a Jesus who tolerates sin, who preach a political Jesus that fits some agenda or other. Paul railed at the Galatian churches on this very concern: But if even an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be accursed! (Gal. 1:8). He goes on to note that he spoke with Peter and James about what he was preaching: I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain ... [Peter and James] added nothing to my message ... (and) recognized the grace given to me (Gal 2:2-9). Paul made certain his message was the correct message so that he could not be accused of being a false prophet.

How can we test the spirits? Verse 2 – Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God, and is, in fact, the spirit of antichrist. Some scholars suggest that John may be responding to a heresy known as docetism, from the Greek for “to seem, or to appear to be”. Docetists believed that Jesus was actually just a spirit who appeared to be human. As such, he did not experience birth, pain, or death as a physical reality, but only appeared to. Since they did not believe Jesus was a fleshly being and therefore did not die, they also denied the physical resurrection. Thus, Jesus, to the docetists was a lesser spiritual being and not God. Their theology is similar to an early form of gnosticism in which salvation is achieved through knowledge of the divine, rather than through the sacrifice of Jesus.   

So, the issue for John is, what do they say about Jesus? Did Jesus come in the flesh? Is he the Word made flesh? Did he suffer and die for our sins? Is there a cross? Is he a Jesus that conforms to the description in John 1:1, Colossians 1:15-20, and Hebrews 1:1-4? Do they acknowledge the physical resurrection of Jesus as a fact of history? What they think of Jesus, and what they tell you about Jesus, tells you whether they are false prophets or true, whether that spirit is from God or from the enemy. I want you to be fully equipped to discern the counterfeit from the genuine. And that’s where John goes next.  

But you ... Listen. I’ve said this many times: I think a lot of Bible translations are weak. That doesn’t mean they are wrong, just that they sort of underplay what the Word actually means. Here is an example. John addressed the Church, But you are of God, my children, and have overcome them ... The root word for “overcome” means victory (nikavw, nikao). It means to conquer or to be victorious in battle. When Paul wrote we are more than conquerors (Rom 8:37, the Greek means we are supervictorious (ὑpernikämen, hypernikomen). John is telling the Believers, you have won, you are victorious, you have conquered those who came to you with falsehood. You wiped the floor with them. It’s not like winning an argument; it’s like winning a war. But you are of God, my children, and have won the victory over them. You have destroyed them!   

Because you are of God, greater is the one in you than the one in the world. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. God is greater than Satan. Never forget that. Satan is the loser in this battle – unless you let him win. But because you are a child of God, you can be, you are the conqueror. Jesus told the disciples, “Live in me and I will live in you.” Put down your roots in the Fortress, and the Fortress will keep you safe.  

Think back to what John wrote in chapter 3 about being a child of God. You have been born of God, meaning that you are of God, saved by his grace and adopted into his family. You belong to him. But John contrasted the children of God with the children of the devil, or those who are of the devil. Remember also when John said that we ought not to love the things of the world, that those who love the world are of the world. Here, those who are of the world speak of worldly things, and when they speak of spiritual matters, they speak in a worldly way. Their whole viewpoint is based in worldly philosophies. John includes those who claim to be “apostles” or “bishops,” but who are false teachers.   

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul warns the church, But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles” (2 Cor 11:3-5). Those “super apostles,” those who thought they were more spiritual, who demonstrated with miracles and convoluted arguments, were misleading the believers. Christians were falling for the deception. It’s those kind of prophets and preachers that John is warning about, who preach feel-good messages, prosperity - God wants you rich, or healthy, or to “live your best life now.” They are worldly, focusing on human ambition, lusts, and greed.  

But we are from God, and whoever is from God listens to us as we preach Jesus. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. They listen to preachers who tickle their ears with novel ideas. John says, this is how you know the difference. So, be like the Bereans. Search the Scriptures. Develop a skepticism toward preachers, prophets, and miracle workers. Test the spirits to see if they are from God. Paul said it this way: Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil (1 Thes 5:20-21). Know your Bible well enough, be so familiar with the genuine that you will not be fooled by the counterfeit.