I John 4

1 John 4:1-5:5

People don't like to be critical .........which in one way is sort of nice. But dangerous! There's a trial going on at the moment. It was in the newspaper this week. The trial of the leaders of a group called the 'Breatharians'. They teach that you can live on air. One of their members died. She'd been trying to live on air. It didn't work. What you believe ...may be literally a matter of life and death. If only that lady had been more critical - more discerning.

Take as another example. The Koorong catalogue. It's full of books that make incredible claims, that on the surface, seem exciting .....even real. A few months ago I was attracted by one of their sales promotions, so I went over to have a look around. I found myself spending ages looking behind all the 'gloss' of the titles and the gimmicky sales talk, to just what the content was or what it was the author was really going on about. You've gotta take care, ...you could waste both your 'dough' and your time if you don't take a long hard look at what the author is on about, ...where he or she is coming from, or what angle they're taking. It pays to be critical. Knowing what you believe is important. What you believe influences your whole life. What you believe influences: How you live your life - What you understand goes on beyond death - and is the basis of Christian hope that you will share with others.

If you get what you believe wrong - at the end ....nothing will be right. Especially your relationship with God.

John really wants his readers to be discerning. To test what they're being told. Not to be gullible or naive. But to be discerning. To TEST the SPIRITS.

He says that in verse 1

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

It's a sort of a comparative test. I remember the first comparative testing I ever saw. Growing up in the 50's I would call in on my grandparents most afternoons. They lived just up the street. My grandfather was a diabetic - insulin dependent, and almost blind. Many an afternoon, ....always around the same time, ....I'd find my grandmother in the bathroom, carrying out a test that involved, a test tube, condies crystals (I think that's what they were) and a Bunsen burner. So as to figure out my grandfather's sugar levels, .....she would match it up with a colour chart.

Testing for sugar levels have changed from then to today, .....but the way to test the spirits that John first spoke about a couple of thousand years ago, hasn't changed!

So what's he saying to look for when you're TESTING THE SPIRITS? What are the indicators to look out for?? Because you see, ...John's problem was False Prophets ...verse 1 again, "...many false prophets have gone out into the world".

How do you spot the fakes?

There are 3 things. You can see them on your outline. a] TRUTH b] LOVE c]OBEDIENCE

Let's look at them one at a time.

a] Test 1 The truth of course, ...is the truth about Jesus. And in believing the TRUTH about Jesus there's two things to ACKNOWLEDGE.

You see, ...the fakes wanted to say that Jesus didn't come in the flesh; and that he wasn't from God!! They wanted to say that Jesus is only SPIRIT. But they're wrong. And it's almost irony - that the REAL SPIRIT OF GOD - wants us to be very certain that Jesus came in the flesh. Our bodies are important, ...so was his! Look at verses 2 & 3

"This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

And the second thing to acknowledge is in v.15 "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." Which means that acknowledging what we believe, ... is a test that the spirit within us, is of God. It is evidence that His Spirit is at work in us.

And John says, anyone who didn't want to acknowledge THOSE THINGS ...is on the wrong side altogether.

Now the trouble was, back in John's days, those ideas just sounded crazy! FLESH & SPIRIT just don't mix .....like oil and water, ....to the ears of the WORLD this sounded ridiculous! .....in verses 4 & 5, John says, you can either listen to the world - or you can listen to the ONES WHO KNEW JESUS - FIRST HAND! The Apostles. You can listen to the world - or you can listen to us!

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ...v.5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them."

And verse 6 is the acid test! It is for us, it should be for everyone. It shouldh've been for everyone in John's day, but it wasn't for those who were fake Christians. Verse 6. John writes: "We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and of falsehood."

This absolutely vital. We've got to continue listening to the Apostles. And we do that by reading what they wrote. All our believing - all our learning stems from the Bible. And everything else needs to be tested by what the Bible says. We need to be discerning. We need to be critical of the World's point-of-veiw!

b] Test number 2 - LOVE.

We looked at this in depth last week, and saw that the LOVE he's talking about wasn't simply EMOTION. IT'S ACTION.

And he says it again here. And as you can see, ....it's a TEST. THOSE who do, ...THOSE who don't.

Verse 7 & 8 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. v.8 ...Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

It's incredible isn't it, ...in fact it's quite tragic. These people who were so keen to be spiritual, ....such experts, they didn't even need to bother listening to the Apostles, .....yet there was no love there! Signs that they were FAKES. TEST the spirits!!

Last week Phil drew our attention to John's emphasis on REMAINING IN Jesus. Well John does it again here, emphasised in the word "live". With the exception of verse 9, where the word "live" means 'come to life': so it might read, ...see there in the second part of verse 9 "....He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might [live] come to life through him." - apart from this occasion, the word "live" or "lives" is the Greek word REMAIN.

Verse 12. "....if we love one another, God remains in us ..." Verse 13. "....we remain in him and he in us ..." Verse 15 "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God." Verse 16 ".....Whoever remains in love remains in God, and God in him." In verse 12, John throws us a real challenge! The unseen God, who's been made known in Jesus, ....is also revealed, ...if and when ...his people LOVE EACH OTHER! Our love for one another is evidence of God's in-dwell-ing presence in the believer.

What's verse 12 say? "No one has ever seen God; BUT if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

c] Now for Test number 3. The test of OBEDIENCE.

You know, lots of things are tough in life - but I reckon being obedient has gotta' be one of the hardest things to be consistent in. And especially to carry through with the number ONE COMMAND - LOVE! I figure in the things that we DO - we never quite get the LOVE THING RIGHT! And even when we think we have, ....it isn't long before we mess it up. And as for our motives, ...well, pure as the driven snow ...OH YEAH??

Earlier I mentioned OIL & WATER as being incompatible: What about our true motives - and the things we do or say? What about the HATE in our hearts - while we pretend to LOVE.

We've all heard the saying: 'Liar, liar, your pants are on fire' I'm not certain as to the origin of that saying, but it seems to be suggesting, that lying is a serious matter, ...serious enough to get you into a bit of strife, if not hell itself.

'Liar, liar, your pants are on fire'. It's got that sort of spontaneous sense about it. You might say that 'spontaneous combustion' sort-of-feel about it. When two incompatible things come into contact with each other ....POOF! ...they go up in flames.

Like LOVE and HATE. It's like that here, in the command to love God and also our brother [in Christ]. You see there in verse 20. "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, HE'S A LIAR!

POOF!! ......UP IN FLAMES! You can't say you love God ...IF you hate your brother! The command is to love God and to love your brother. If you don't ....YOU'RE A FAKE! ......POOF!! Up in flames.

Imagine it. There you are. On full view. Because you claim to love God, everyone is thinking you're a Christian. And all of a sudden, ....your pants go up in fire. You fake. You'll be just where you deserve, .....in the HOTSEAT. We might laugh. But to John, it's no laughing matter. Because, if we fail the test of obedience, we fail the lot. If we fail one ...we are not complete, ...and we aren't able then to overcome the world. In fact, at that point, the world has victory over us. Measuring up to two out of the three tests isn't good enough. It's ALL OR NOTHING. John says we've got to hold on to the TRUTH - Number 1! ...and that we've got to be committed to LOVE!

This ....ALL or NOTHING principle is the emphasis that John leaves us in these first five verses of chapter 5. Can you see the coming together of the three tests of: TRUTH, emphasised in the 'believing'; LOVE, emphasised in the 'relationships'; & OBEDIENCE, emphasised in the 'commands'. These are the 3 tests that distinguish between being a REAL CHRISTIAN and a FAKE one!

READ 5:1-5.

The real Christian has, by acknowledging Jesus as coming in the flesh (4:2); ...is from God (4:3); ....is the Son of God (4:15); ......and is the Christ or the Saviour (5:1), passed the three tests.

John wants us to recognise the dangers of not being critical. He wants to encourage the Real Christian, to know how to discern the Fake Christian. And this is done ... by listening to the Scriptures, not to the world.

Using the Scriptures to TEST THE SPIRITS.