1 John 4:1-8
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because 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 of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
“We are of God” (v. 6). What brief yet beautiful statement of our identity in Christ Jesus! How do we know we are of God? Jesus tells the unbelieving Jews in John 8:47, “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” Hearing God’s words spoken through His Son is what makes one “of God.” Hearing includes believing as Jesus says in John 5:24, “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life.” Being “of God” we hear the apostles’ teaching as well, since it was given to them by Christ. “He who knows God hears us,” John writes. Reading God’s Word given to us in Holy Scripture, hearing preaching that faithfully explains God’s Word, and meditating on God’s Word which we read and here is how the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts and makes us “of God.”
Those who are not “of God” are of the devil. They listen to the spirit of error which speaks through false prophets and antichrists. Being of the devil they listen to his word, though he dresses it up in scriptural sounding language as a wolf would don a sheepskin in order to deceive the flock. But being “of God” through faith in Christ, the children of God overcome the spirit of error. The children of God hear God’s Word and test every spirit—every teacher, book, article, video, sermon, and the like—according to the pure and clear words of Jesus and His apostles written in Holy Scripture. They overcome falsehoods and antichrists because the One who is in them—Christ—is greater than he who is in the world.
Those who are “of God” also love one another in the way God defines love (1 Cor. 13). Being “of God” by hearing and believing God’s love for them in Christ Jesus, they love their neighbors. Those who are born of God hear His Word, believe it, and in that faith see their neighbor through eyes of true Christian love.
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, grant that we always hear Your word with believing hearts and grant that we, meditating on Your great love for us in Christ Jesus, may grow in love for one another. Amen.
