IT IS EASY TO DETERMINE intellectually that the equation 2 + 2 = 5 is mathematically incorrect: 2 + 2 does not equal 5 (in a base ten mathematical system). It is easy to verify intellectually that the earth is not flat but round. It is easy to verify intellectually that Abraham Lincoln actually lived and served as President of the United States. However, spiritual truth and error are not identified by reasoning alone. Satan desires spiritual truth’s destruction, and failing that, he desires its corruption. In John 7:17 Jesus says, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” We learn here that the gateway to spiritual truth is not so much the intellect but the will. Because there is spiritual truth, there is also spiritual error and falsehood. Spiritual truth and error are not discerned by logical or intellectual reasoning alone. Intellectual reasoning is a part of the truth discernment process, but truth is not discerned that way alone. Some of the brightest people on the face on the earth are dead wrong about some things they believe and teach. Spiritual truth is not discerned, known, or identified by reasoning alone. Spiritual discernment plays a crucial role as well. To know God you must come to him in faith and love. Intellectuals who are intoxicated with their own wisdom and knowledge can’t quite seem to figure out that their own investigative methodologies are flawed to the core when it comes to discerning spiritual truth.
The context of 4:1–6 concerns the source of true and false teaching. Note that the phrase “from God” occurs six times in these six verses (in every verse except verse 5 and twice in verse 6). The Book of Acts confirms that in the early church the Holy Spirit was particularly associated with the function of preaching and teaching. The source of true Christian teaching is God through the Holy Spirit. In this paragraph John uses the word “Spirit,” which in English translation is capitalized to indicate John is referring to the Holy Spirit. He uses the word “spirit” with a lowercase s when referring to demonic spirits and as a metonymy (a literary device meaning using the part for the whole) for the person who speaks about God and what he teaches about God.1 The supernatural is real, but it is not always from God!
Test the Teaching (v.1)
John begins this passage by telling us not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits to see if they are from God.2 Christians are not to “believe” every teaching that comes down the pike. Only teaching that comes from God is to be believed. Rather, we are to “test” teaching to determine its source and quality. The Greek word translated “test” here was commonly used in the first century for the testing of metals to see if they were unalloyed and genuine. What does it mean “to test the spirits”?
Anytime we hear a sermon, read a book, hear a speaker, or go to a seminar, we must not just automatically believe everything that person tells us because we assume him to be an authority. What he is telling us may be wrong. John is using the word “spirit” in verse 1 in the sense of the spirit that is behind the person who is doing the preaching and teaching.3 There are two possibilities here. Either a preacher or teacher is operating from the Holy Spirit of God or from some demonic spirit. “Testing” is how we go about determining if something is genuine. Is God the source of this teaching, or is a demonic spirit behind it? The reason we are told to test the spirits is because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The multiplicity of “spirits” activating the many false prophets can refer either to the large number of false prophets or to the large number of evil spirits that activate them. Actually both meanings are true. In contrast to the many false “spirits,” there is only one “Spirit of God” (v. 2a).
These false prophets “have gone out into the world.” Some take this statement to mean that Christian prophets once in the church have gone out of the church into the world to teach false doctrine. This is impossible to know for sure, unless perhaps this is a reference to the false teachers whom John mentioned in 2:19. Others take the phrase to indicate that the false teachers went into the world empowered by satanic teaching. This is certainly true on the basis of what John has already said in his letter. But most likely John is just employing the verb to indicate that these false teachers appeared teaching among people, regardless of where they came from.
Throughout the Bible and church history there have always been false prophets. God gave very specific and strict regulations for dealing with false prophets in the Old Testament era. In fact, they were to be stoned. Taking his cue from the severity of punishment in the Old Testament, albeit it with a tinge of exaggeration (but only a tinge!), Luther said, “But you will test them in the following way: He who wants to teach things that are new or different must have been called by God and must confirm his calling with true miracles. If he does not do this, let him depart from this place and be hanged!”4
Today false prophets are to be discerned, their teaching condemned, and then avoided. The purpose of testing is not to discern whether their motivation is from God, but rather whether the message they speak is true or false. This is what enables us to know whether the message comes from God. If the message is true, it comes from God. If it is false, it does not. “Eyes wide open” should be the watchword for every Christian. Unfortunately, for some, when it comes to discerning false teaching, the watchword seems to be, “eyes wide shut.”
First Timothy 4:1 makes an important statement about the source of false doctrine: “In later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” The source of false doctrine is Satan and his demons. Satan’s plan is to distort true doctrine by means of false prophets who teach something less than sound doctrine. We should consider not only the source of false doctrine but the danger of false doctrine. False doctrine denies true doctrine. False doctrine distorts truth. False doctrine deceives. Consider how cults operate. They come to you masquerading as a valid Christian group. Sometimes they present themselves as “just another denomination.” Jesus said in Matthew 24:5 that many false christs would come in his name claiming to be the Messiah, and they will deceive many. Jesus said in Mark 13:22, 23 that false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders. The result is deception, sometimes of God’s own people. Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29, 30 identifies two places from which false teacher will try to come and disrupt the church. One is from the outside; the other is from the inside. Peter also warns of the danger of false teachers in 2 Peter 2:1.
I never cease to be amazed at the gullibility of some people. When I turn on my television and see some of those so-called faith healers plying their trade, I marvel at how many people are following them. There is a sucker born every minute!5 Even when documentaries expose some of these people as the hucksters they are, large crowds still follow them, looking for a miracle. We cannot afford spiritual naiveté about spiritual teaching. All teaching must be tested.
Nobody wants to be known for being a heresy hunter. In our day of watered-down doctrine, some believe we should not get hung up on doctrine. “Doctrine divides,” they say. We just all need to love everybody and get along. Let’s have an Oprah group hug and all sing “Kumbaya” around the ecumenical campfire. Why, you don’t want to be intolerant and judgmental of people who don’t agree with you, do you? That sounds altruistic and appealing, does it not? The fact of the matter is, true Christianity is doctrinally intolerant. Jesus said, “I am the way.” There is no other way. Either he is right or wrong. Either John 14:6 is true or false. Christianity is by definition a God-revealed religion whereby God says this is truth and this is error. God gets to make the rules. It is his world. We need to remember that Satan is out for the destruction of truth, and where he cannot succeed in that, he is interested in truth corruption. Satan knows that if he comes directly to you and says that Jesus isn’t really God in human flesh, most Christians will see through the lie. So what does he do? He sends someone into the church who is wishy-washy on some doctrines, someone who is willing to compromise on some truths. Satan can sound so educated and so reasonable. He dilutes and distorts until finally he destroys truth.
In his famous sermon The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God preached at Yale’s commencement on September 10, 1741, Jonathan Edwards takes as his text 1 John 4:1. In Section One he discusses nine “negative signs” that cannot be deemed as showing that a work is not from God. For example, Edwards points out, “If some who were thought to be wrought upon fall away into gross errors or scandalous practices, it is no argument that the work in general is not the work of the Spirit of God. That there are some counterfeits is no argument that nothing is true; such things are always expected in a time of reformation.”6 Wise words. In Section Two Edwards identifies the distinguishing Scriptural evidences of a genuine work of God. Here he confines himself to principles laid out mostly in 1 John 4:1–6.
In 1 John 4:1–6 John gives us three tests to determine truth and error. The first is found in verses 2, 3. Placed in the form of a question posed to suspected false teachers, test number 1 is, do they confess Jesus as the divine Lord? Test number 2 is, do they possess divine life? Test number 3 is, do they profess the divine truth?
Do They Confess the Divine Lord? (vv. 2, 3)
Here John tells us how we can know7 the presence of the Spirit of God as the source of teaching. Here the word “know” indicates “come to know, ascertain.” Genuine knowledge of Christian experience does not arise from within but has a supernatural origin. It is God’s gift to the believer. This is a blow to the proto-Gnostics and their false teaching of secret, superior knowledge as a way of salvation. There is no salvation by knowledge but only a salvation by grace through Christ.
When John says that every “spirit” that confesses Jesus has come in the flesh is “from God,” he is emphasizing the issue of source and origin. When John says those that do not so confess Jesus are “not from God,” again he is emphasizing source or origin, but with the added thought of opposition to the true teaching that is from God. John is not just speaking casually when he says “Jesus Christ has come.” Rather he is emphasizing that Jesus came from another realm entirely. He has entered into our world by erupting into history. In the face of all those in John’s day who were denying his unique deity and eternal sonship, John emphasizes both.8
I recommend that you read Walter Martin’s classic book The Kingdom of the Cults, an excellent work on the subject of the cults. Chapter 17 is entitled “The Jesus of the Cults.” Martin surveys what the various cults teach about the person of Christ. For example, the Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses, according to their publication Watchtower, is a god, not the God. Official doctrine of the Jehovah Witnesses teaches that Jesus was the first creation of God. Charles Russell, the founder, described this Jesus as having been Michael the Archangel prior to his divesting himself of his angelic nature and appearing in the world as a man. Jesus is thus an angel who became a man. He is a godlike figure, but he is not God the Son, the second member of the Trinity, as the Bible teaches. Jehovah’s Witnesses are explicit in their denial of the deity of Jesus, both in their writings and at your doorstep!
Consider the Jesus of the Mormons. Mormonism teaches, “. . . each of these gods, including Jesus and his Father, being in possession of not merely a spirit but a body of flesh and bones.”9 According to Mormonism, there is a pantheon of gods, and God was once a man. Furthermore, Jesus, before his incarnation, was a created being and the brother of Lucifer. Jesus was born of Mary his mother, but he was not conceived by either Joseph or the Holy Spirit. A heavenly father, a god of flesh and bones, had sexual relations with Mary, and Jesus was conceived. Not only that, Jesus was the husband of both Mary and Martha (and perhaps Mary Magdalene as well) and had children by all of his wives. He was rewarded for his faithfulness by becoming the ruler of this earth. This is official Mormon doctrine.10
One branch of Gnosticism in the late first century and second century sought to deny the reality of the body and in fact of all physical matter. The modern-day heir of this error is the Christian Science cult. How can you be sure you are following the true Spirit of God? The Spirit who represents the incarnate Jesus is the true Spirit of God. Any spirit denying the incarnate Jesus is a spirit of antichrist.
At this point let me remind you of the difference between criticizing someone individually and criticizing the doctrinal position of a false religion. We live in a world that doesn’t want to criticize anyone. We are perceived as being bigoted and intolerant if we do. Yet both John and Jude remind us and command us to earnestly “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
The first test John gives to determine whether teachers are true or false is, do they confess the truth about Jesus? All of the major world religions and cults don’t do that. Consider Islam. No Muslim considers Jesus to be divine or the Son of God. In Timothy George’s book Is the Father of Jesus the God of Mohammad? Chapter 4 is entitled “Why the Trinity Matters.” George states: “Christians predicate something essential and irreducible about God that no Muslim can accept. We call Him our heavenly Father.”11 Bilquis Sheikh was a Pakistani woman of noble birth who had been a Muslim her entire life. Through a series of strange encounters, she came to know and believe in Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. She titled the book narrating the story of her conversion I Dared to Call Him Father.12 On the side of the Dome of the Rock, the mosque on the temple mount in Jerusalem, are written in Arabic these words: “God has no son.” Ironically, this mosque faces the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In stark contrast, the fundamental difference between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are visually illustrated in the heart of the holy city, Jerusalem. The words of God himself spoken of Jesus at his baptism declare, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). What you believe about Jesus and the Trinity is absolutely essential. Every world religion and cult without exception denies that Jesus is the Son of God who “has come in the flesh.”13
We should also be aware of the fact that mere acceptance of the teaching of Jesus does not make you a Christian. Mahatma Gandhi did that. He was not a Christian, but he praised the teaching of Christ and told people they ought to try to practice it. Likewise, antichristian teaching is not necessarily an open denial of Christ. Sometimes it is a misrepresentation of Christ, adding something to him or detracting something from him. False teachers either deny or distort apostolic teaching. The apostles and prophets, according to Ephesians 2:20, are the foundation of the church. Any teaching that contradicts them is the spirit of antichrist and is false.
John goes out of his way in this letter to emphasize that Jesus has come “in the flesh.” As Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly noted, “If the Incarnation is not an actual fact, if He really has not been made flesh and dwelt among us, then there was no real humiliation involved in His coming into this world. He really did not limit Himself, as it were, to the position of a man dependent upon God; there is no real meaning in the laying aside of the insignia of the eternal glory; there is no true humiliation.”14 In 4:2, 3 we have three emphases: 1) certain knowledge, 2) divine identification, and 3) demonic differentiation.
Do They Possess the Divine Life? (v. 4)
The second test to determine false teachers and false doctrine is found in verse 4: do they possess the divine life? As Christians, our life comes from God. John places the “you” first in the clause for emphasis and to contrast with the false teachers of the previous verse. We are “from God”; hence, we are his children, a point already established from 1 John 3. Our motivating source, life, and teaching have their origin in God. For this reason we “have overcome” false teachers. John uses the word nikaō, which means “to conquer; to overcome.” It is the word for victory. If you have any article of clothing with the Nike logo on it, that word comes from this Greek word meaning “victory.” Furthermore, John uses the perfect tense here to indicate complete and abiding victory. This is the same word Jesus used in John 16:33 when he taught the disciples on the eve of his own crucifixion, “I have overcome the world.” The manner in which we have overcome is not overtly stated, but the implication is that this occurs by means of our relying on true teaching and rejecting false teaching.
John informs his readers that they have “overcome” false teachers because “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” “Greater” here means “stronger.” All false teachers claim to be from God. However, John says God is not their source. False teachers do not possess the Holy Spirit as do believers. The one who is in the world is, of course, Satan. The Holy Spirit who is in you is greater than Satan. Thus you are able to overcome false teachers and false doctrine, because the Holy Spirit in you is greater than the spirit of antichrist in those who are false teachers. Union General George McClellan always seemed fearful that the enemy had superior forces; so he never attacked Robert E. Lee in the early days of the Civil War. At Richmond he sent a spy, Allan Pinkerton, to assess the Confederate forces. Pinkerton assumed there were more Confederates than he could see, so he inflated the numbers. As a result McClellan did not attack.15 That is often the way we Christians are. We overestimate the power of the enemy, and we underestimate the power of our God.
But there is another nuance in John’s language here. John’s use of “in you” has a corporate, distributive sense as well. As Yarbrough put it, “Christ is not present in the individual to any greater extent than the individual participates in the presence of Christ amid the apostolic fellowship as a whole.”16 God himself strengthens us as believers and our belief system.
Though John does not specifically state it, we learn to discern false teachers from true teachers as we become students of the Word of God. There is no substitute for a knowledge of Biblical teaching in combating falsehood. Remember Paul said we are to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” to do battle against Satan and his emissaries (Ephesians 6:17). Bank tellers do not have to go through training to spot a counterfeit dollar bill. They handle the real thing so much, they can tell a counterfeit when they see it and touch it. If we will become familiar with the truth of God’s Word, we won’t have too much trouble spotting counterfeit doctrine and their peddlers when they come along. Calvin insightfully noted,
Those who say the Word of God is the rule by which everything should be tested, say something but not everything. I grant that doctrines should be tested by God’s Word. But there is little or no profit in having God’s Word in our hands, for its meaning will not be certain to us. . . . But the Spirit will only guide us to a true discrimination if we subject all our thoughts to the Word.17
Jonathan Edwards rightly noted, “When the spirit that is at work operates against the interests of Satan’s kingdom, which lies in encouraging and establishing sin and cherishing men’s worldly lusts, this is a sure sign that it is a true and not a false spirit.”18
Do They Profess the Divine Truth? (vv. 5, 6)
The third test to determine false teachers and false doctrine is found in verses 5, 6: do they possess the divine law? The word “they” contrasts strongly with “you” in verse 4. False teachers are not from God but from the world. Their source and motivation is from godless humanity, the world system that is opposed to God. Therefore they speak as those who are from the world. Furthermore the world listens to them. We should always scrutinize the message of all who claim to speak for God. Are they declaring the Bible and the Bible alone as the Word of God? Are they interpreting it within the framework of orthodox Christianity, or are they twisting or distorting its message? John says that those who know God will hear—that is, listen to—those who are true gospel preachers. But those who do not know God will not listen to true gospel preaching. This is the measuring stick we use to discern false teaching from that which is true. John concludes verse 6 with the summary statement, “By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”19 The phrase “by this” refers to verses 5, 6a. Those following the spirit of truth listen to the apostles; those following the spirit of error do not.20 “When we speak from the Spirit of God, the majority snore,” said Luther.21
Here is a summary of what John is saying: You must test the teaching you hear as to whether it comes from God or not, whether it acknowledges that Jesus Christ came to earth in human form, and whether the world of unsaved people listen to it. You have prevailed over false teachers.
The New Testament clearly emphasizes the sufficiency of Christ and the Bible as the Word of God. The veneration of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholicism is an example of how false doctrine detracts from the all-sufficiency of Jesus. In 1990 I went on a mission trip to Mexico City with about thirty members of our church. After a week of evangelistic work we had a day of sightseeing. One of the places we visited was the famous Catholic cathedral in the heart of Mexico City, the Basilica de Guadalupe. Considered by many Catholics to be the holiest place in the Americas, it is probably the second most visited shrine in the entire Catholic world, second only to Saint Peter’s in The Vatican. Paintings and statuary of Mary permeate the building. Many of these depictions included Mary holding the dead body of Jesus. While we were inside, one of my deacons in our group engaged one of the Catholic priests available to answer questions from tourists. Walking up I could just make out the end of their conversation. My deacon was saying, “The difference between me and you is you believe in a living Mary and a dead Jesus; I believe in a dead Mary and a living Jesus!”22 All false teaching ultimately detracts from Jesus and the sufficiency of his work on the cross for salvation.