The Test of the Spirit
(Morning Service)
Text: 1 John 4:1-6
Do you have good vision? Or do you wish it was better? Glasses and contacts can help, but as we look at John’s letter this morning, they might not help this perception-test. In the midst of multiple gospels and false teachers that blur the lines of our Christian confession, how good is our spiritual vision to discern the True Gospel from the false gospels? This morning John gives us yet another test: the Test of the Spirit.
“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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 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. 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. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 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.
(1 John 4:1–6 ESV)”