4:1 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.
We live in an age that has a very high level of credibility regarding things spiritual, but a very low level of discernment. Part of this is because of the widespread belief that truth is relative and any and all claims to spiritual insight are equally valid. This often stems from or is at least assisted by an intellectual laziness; rather than investigating varying truth claims it is easier to simply say they are all true, even if they are mutually exclusive. In the same way, many don’t even evaluate truth claims to see if they even square with the world they live in.
The Apostle John, though, tells his readers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God (v. 1).” He warns that there are false prophets, who we can assume would be making false claims. Of course, John has been a black and white thinker all along, or at least a light and dark thinker, a love and hate thinker.
But after telling his readers to be so discerning, John does give them the means to do so, and it is a simple test. Anyone who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Anyone that does not, is not from God which means, John told us in chapter 3, they are from the devil.
Of course, John wrote in a specific place and time, when there were those in his day who believed Christ was the holy Son of God—but not that He was Jesus, the man, born of Mary. Today, our simple test might run the other way. Plenty believe in the historical man, Jesus, who walked the earth in Israel 2,000 years ago. But few believe He is the second Person of the Triune God. Actually, at all times and in all places we need to believe that Jesus is both wholly God and fully man.
There are scholars and false prophets and armchair philosophers today who deny the divinity of Christ. There are still some who deny His humanity. But John says “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them (v. 5).” Those who make a true confession of Christ, on the other hand, “are from God. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error (v. 6).”
The differences are sometimes sharp. Discussions can become arguments. But even at a time when darkness seems to be increasing and falsehood tries to silence truth, we have no reason to fear. For as John says, “He Who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (v. 4).” So hold fast to Him Who is able to save you, be discerning, and have hope.