1 John 4: 1-6 NLT 4 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. Just a couple of chapters ago John wrote about antichrists and he mentions them again here. Antichrists are not only those who are against Christ. The really creepy and dangerous ones are the ones who try to take the place of Christ and, in some sense, they do for those who fall for their lies. God wants us to live in the truth and the confidence that comes from that truth. In our passage today John tells us how to know if what someone is claiming to be from God actually is from Him. The test John writes is if they actually have the Spirit of God in them. We will know they do not if they deny that Jesus came in a real body. Remember, the false teachers believed that anything, including our bodies, are evil. So Jesus could not have really been in body like ours. Yet God says otherwise. Not only did Jesus have a body like our but He also lived a perfectly righteous life and died in the place of sinners, and was raised again in a body.
The Holy Spirit is the One who lives and works in the believer to help them both receive and share the truth of God. He is even called the Spirit of Truth. John, the same writer of the letter we're studying, wrote- The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know Him. He lives with you, and He will be in you. John 14:17 ERV He will lead believers into all truth. He is our seal, our guarantee that we will be saved eternally and that when Jesus returns we will be with Him forever. Ask Yourself:
You are not alone! You have people who love you and can help you figure that out. But you have to willing to ask or be corrected. The same Spirit lives in you that lives in me if you are a child of God. God cares deeply about us and that is why He corrects us through the writer John as well as others that He brings into our lives. I will always make myself available to you if you have any questions, comments, even complaints. Have great day Loved Ones, and God bless you, real good!
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