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. 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. 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.
(1Jn 4:1-3 NLT)
This is how you know if the teacher is of God or of the world, read the Antichrist. Strong words indeed, but they indicate just how serious it is that you listen to the truth. By the same standard the teacher can know who he/she is speaking to. Look at verse six.
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.
(1Jn 4:6 NLT)
I have been guilty of trying to win over people’s hearts and minds as I teach and I have found myself becoming frustrated as I presented the truth because no action would follow. What I did not understand, according to 1 John 4 is that I had come face to face with a natural, spiritual boundary between those who are of God and those who are not. As I walked through this with my instructor he reminded me that it was neither his job nor mine to determine the outcome for those who came to the class but rather simply present the truth and when the time was right God’s Holy Spirit would remind them of the truth they heard.
1 John 4 goes on to talk about God’s great love and because He has loved us so much we surely ought to love one another, if God lives in us. Do you struggle with that person that has seemingly set themselves against you, regardless of what you do, good or bad? You should know that God’s love is not in them and surely the enemy is in the attack. Do not get caught up in retaliation; instead be found in God so that God may be found in you. Show love, not the conditional love the world gives but God’s love that has no strings attached. Remember you are not fighting a battle of the flesh but of the spirit and to win you must use spiritual weapons mentioned in Ephesians 6. As we learn to live this way God says our love will grow more perfect, therefore we will not fear the Day of Judgment that all mankind will one day face. What a reward that will be to stand before God and all mankind and be found as one of His children! Not only that but there will be those who hated you that gave into God’s love because of the love they saw in you who also will be called God’s children and you will be able to celebrate with them because of the things the Lord has done. So live a life filled with God’s love, free from fear because perfect love expels all fear, in this way also we show others that we know God.
If someone says, "I love God," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
(1Jn 4:20 NLT)
