Epistles of John

A study of John's three letters

Sunday, April 4, 2010

1 John 4

1 John 4 - Discerning False Prophets

(1) 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.

  • *friends: "beloved" in the KJV, which is closer to the meaning since the Greek is agapetoi from agape (God's love).

    John uses the word "love" or its equivalent 27 times in this chapter.
  • **test them: Believers are exhorted to test the spirits (of prophets) with two tests: external (doctrine) and internal (witness of the Spirit). The doctrinal test is a simple question: Has Jesus Christ come in the flesh (4:1-3)? The spiritual test ends up being just as simple: Do the prophets heed John (4:4-6)? This question can be asked because John is God’s spokesman (4:6).
  • Matthew 7:15-18: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
  • Matthew 24:11: And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
  • Mark 13:22: For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
  • Acts 17:11-12: And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.
  • Galatians 1:8: Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:13: These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.
  • 1 Timothy 4:1: Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
  • 2 Timothy 4:3-4: For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
  • 2 Peter 2:1: But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

(2) 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.

  • *Jesus Christ came in a real body: Here is the central issue. Who is Jesus Christ?
    Who is claiming him to be something that John, an eyewitness, says he was not?
    • Is he a spirit without a body?
    • Is he just a great man like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.?
    • Was he just a human on whom the holy spirit fell at his baptism which then left at his crucifixion?
    • Many false teachers of the time (the Gnostics) and even today were saying that Jesus only “appeared” to be human. This was probably based on the teaching that the material creation was inherently evil and therefore physical bodies were evil.
  • To the Gnostic, all matter or material was essentially evil, and since Christ was an emanation and not evil, He could not have taken on human flesh. Gnostics firmly denied the Incarnation of Christ, stating that He was only an apparition. The Gnostic Cerinthus was more subtle in his teaching. He declared that there was both a human Jesus and a divine Christ, that divinity came upon Him at His baptism and left Him at the cross. In fact, the Gospel of Peter translates the words of Jesus on the cross like this: “My power, my power, why hast thou forsaken me?”
  • John 1:14: So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
  • 2 John 1:7: I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.

(3) 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.

  • *truth about Jesus: And what is the truth about Jesus? The truth about Jesus is that he is both God and man. He existed in the beginning and was God (John 1), yet He was also human in a real body - he suffered pain and we touched him (1 John 1). All who teach anything less has the spirit of Antichrist (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, liberals).

(4) But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

  • King James version: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
  • In the battle between Jesus and satan, satan’s destiny is clear.

(5) Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.

(6) 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.

  • John here speaks of the absolute authority of the ministry of the apostles. They were chosen and commissioned by God - including Paul. There can be no middle ground, no compromising position of any kind. If the apostles’ word is minimized or modified by man’s teaching, this is actual refusal of God’s voice.
  • John, who knew Jesus, who lived with Jesus, who laid his head on Jesus’ chest, who talked to Jesus, who touched Jesus, said that. Anybody who rejects the apostles’ teaching doesn’t know the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(7) Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

  • This does not rule out the need for faithful confession of Christ (2:23; 4:2) and ethical integrity (3:16). But, love completes the picture of a life in fellowship with God. Love is presented here as a consequence of, not a precondition for, being born of God. Unbelievers can love others to some degree, but not in the way that God's indwelling presence enables Christians to love.
  • This love is agapao — we must remember love is not an emotion, it’s a commitment. You can’t stop loving someone in the agapao sense because it’s not an emotion to begin with; rather it’s a commitment between you and that other person. If only marriage partners would do the same! For those who are dating or even engage, they need to recognize what REAL love is!

(8) But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

  • The person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. John is not saying that God is only love (he has numerous other attributes), nor that love is God (a statement for which there is no scriptural support). “God is love” means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit. There was eternal love between the persons of the Trinity even before the world was created (John 17:24), and God's love is the ultimate source of any love that Christians are able to display (1 John 4:11, 12, 19).

(9) God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

  • John 3:16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
  • Romans 5:8: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

(10) This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a *sacrifice to take away our sins.

  • *sacrifice: The KJV uses the word "propitiation" and sacrifice is the meaning of that word.

(11) Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

(12) No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

  • John 1:18: No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
  • John 14:9: Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
  • Colossians 1:15: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
  • We can’t see God directly for several reasons; one is that we don’t have the correct number of dimensions in our physical being. We know we live in a world of at least 10 dimensions, yet we experience only four. God lives in more dimensions and you can’t expect to see more dimensions than you live in. If you want to see God, just look to Jesus — He is the perfect image of God represented in four dimensions.

(13) And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.

  • Acts 2:38: Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • Romans 8:11: The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19: Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
  • 2 Corinthians 5:5: God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
  • Ephesians 1:13-14: And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
  • Ephesians 4:30 (KJV): And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

(14) Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the *Savior of the world.

  • Unlike these false teachers, John was an EYEWITNESS! Who should know best who Jesus was?
  • Notice in these two verses (13 & 14), the vital manifestation of God as a Trinity, the gift of the Spirit, the sending of the Son, by the Father.

(15) All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.

  • In 1 John 4:2, it was required that true teachers affirm Christ's full humanity; here it is required that they affirm his full deity.
  • John 17:21: I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
  • Romans 10:9: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

(16) We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

(17) And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

(18) Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love

  • 2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

(19) We love each other because he loved us first.

  • A sad commentary on human love — we love in reciprocation. Our love is not an original outpouring, but a response to something. We love because we get something in return.

(20) 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?

(21) And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

  • John 13:35: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

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Bible studies are held in Oakbay subdivision in Noblesville, Indiana. In-person Sunday studies have been eliminated because of COVID-19 concerns. Wednesday studies at 7:00 pm led by Don Terry via Zoom - presently studying the Book of Acts from a dispensationalist viewpoint. Bi-monthly Wednesday’s women’s studies at 7:00 pm led by Carolyn Terry via Zoom - presently studying Paul’s second letter to Timothy - and his last writing. You can see several of our present and past studies but we covered many other subjects before starting this blog. The goal of these studies is to bring each of us to know Christ better (epignosis) and then to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” as mentioned by Paul in Philippians 3:14 and to hear Jesus’ “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”. Dedicated to the memory of Don & Carolyn Terry’s daughter, DJ (Dorothy Jean) Terry, who went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in 1999 at 20 years old.