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Join us as Cornelius Warren teaches through 1 John.
Tonight we are in 1 John 4: 1-6. John’s words in our text are absolutely vital for the preservation of God’s truth. After telling us in 1 John 3: 23 that God’s commandment is “that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” In verse 1, John now tells us not to believe everything: “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.”
John especially had in mind the false teachers who had left the church and were drawing others after them (1 John 2: 19, 22-23). It is significant that this warning comes in the midst of John’s discourse about love, because false spirits tend to make a great deal of the subject of love. Every cult, every deviant group, every false movement makes its appeal in the name of love.
Like John, Paul emphasized the demonic aspect of false teachers (1 Timothy 4: 1). Of course, the deceitful spirits and their demonic doctrines teach through people who advocate the false teaching. So we must pay close attention to John’s words. He is saying that…
Believers must be discerning in spiritual matters.
