Chapter 4
Test the spirits.
MSB says that since John mentioned the Holy Spirit in 3:24, he now informs them that there are other spirits in the world - demonic in nature - who twist and distort God's word to lead as many astray as they can. Satan has done this since he lied to Eve. MSB says John is going to give the believers two "tests" by which they can identify false doctrine.
First, does the spirit confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? The point being made is that Jesus is fully God and fully man. He came to earth IN THE FLESH that these Gnostic dualists find so repulsive as to be something Jesus would never take on. So the test may be a bit specific to the false teaching occurring at the time John is writing. They are not teaching the same truth about Jesus as the apostles taught. He seems also to say that this teaching is anti-Christ - from unbelievers, and sourced in demonic deception, and devised by Satan to undermine the church itself. More contrasts between truth and error. John is very "constant and precise" in the way he does this.
(What is the other test?)
MSB says the second test is in vvs 5, 6. That is, do they speak from the word, and the word only, following apostolic doctrine. MSB quote: "The OT and NT are the sole standards by which all teaching is to be tested. In contrast, demonically inspired teachers either reject the teaching of God's Word or add elements to it."
2022 - Also, in vs 3, John says again that the spirit of anti-Christ is already in the world. He has labeled as anti-Christ any teaching that does not confess Christ. I think he primarily has in mind the false teachers that abound, after all he named them in vs 1. The false prophets. I think he is "linking" spirits not from God directly with/to the many false prophets. So we again see this idea of correspondence between spirit beings - that is angels, and I will be calling them that from now on - and mortal men. Angels, in this case, better called demons. We saw this in the beast from the sea and his correspondence with the beast from the earth - demon beast and man beast. Now we see that at even lower levels of the hierarchy, there is still correspondence. The demon angels provoke mortal men to deny Christ. This is the focus of their attack, this is the place they run the siege towers right up against. They are anti- Christ. They must "un-deify" him if they expect to actually breach the kingdom. Men are deceived by them and preach their heresy, their anti-Christ doctrine. So here again, in this usage, anti-Christ does not refer to the evil world ruler who arises at the end. John, in context, is referring here to a very different sort of anti-Christ.
2022 - Vs 4,
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. [1Jo 4:4 ESV]
The false prophets and false teachers are under the control of the spirit of anti-Christ. They are overcome. But the saved, those already converted, with the Holy Spirit within them, are not and CANNOT be overcome with such demon angels. This is, I think, the basis for John's position that if they teach such things - if they deny that Christ came in the flesh, and that he is the Son of God - then they were NEVER saved. John says you cannot go there if the Holy Spirit is in you.
2021 - This verse:
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. [1Jo 4:5 ESV] Perhaps the reason that so many distrust megachurches. To be so very hugely popular is to invite the accusation of worldly preachers. I think this also implies that if a large proportion of the members of a church live as the world lives, and does not follow God's commandments, it reflects on the true source of the teaching in that church. We know that Corinth went pretty far off the rails, but there were believers in that church. But Paul's continued concern for that church - based not just on the teaching there but on the specific, named, detailed behaviors of some of its members - surely says that it was in danger of becoming no church at all, but merely a social club no different than any other.
2022 - This one:
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. [1Jo 4:6 ESV].
In vs 5 John says "you are from God". Now, in 6, he says "we are from God". They are not alone. Another test here. If others who are from God listen to you, it confirms that you are from God. If those obviously - within our ability to tell - unsaved listen to a certain teacher, then that teacher is of the world. Popular with the world means you belong to the world. So the 2021 verse and the implications for megachurches is on the right track. This one thing though, you cannot judge, you cannot evaluate these things from a distance. As you must know a false prophet - at least the better false prophets - to really know what runs him, so you almost have to be in the megachurch, know a lot of people well, to determine whether its members are living like the world or living like the church. And think what that part now means for churches everywhere! Can you pull out a cross section of members of any church and not find alcohol, divorce, pornography, greed, and covetousness? Or will it look just like the world? But here is a thing - will those in the church demonstrate recognition of their sins, repentance for them, and effort to overcome them? Because you won't see that in the worldly cross section. This is the key to real data from the survey - to whether the church and its leaders are "from God" or "from the world".
And look at that last phrase, pitting the demons that follow Satan against the angels that follow Christ. Spiritual battle rages over possession of the children of men. Spirits fight with spirits, and men fight with men - as supported by, as encouraged or deceived by, those spirits. Note that the saved have one Spirit - the Holy Spirit - while the false have many spirits, each of which needs testing. This is what we are looking for! Either the indwelling Holy Spirit, or possession by demonic forces. Maybe this is what it means when it says "4 There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [Eph 4:4-6 ESV]". On God's side, there is one, and he is opposed by multiple, divided, individual demons on the other. No wonder we are stronger! God is not divided!
We have seen before in the diminution of power from the dragon, to the beast from the sea, to the first beast from earth to the second to the image. At each stage, the power is diluted. Not so with the Holy Spirit. In each believer resides the undiluted full power of God, in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Satan cannot pull this off. His are always weaker, by definition, by nature, as creatures, not creators!
New paragraph begins in vs 7:
John makes the same sort of argument here about love as he made about Christ in the previous section. There, if you do not confess Christ, you are not of God, you do not know God. Here, if you do not love one another, you do not know God. This phrase:
"...whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." [1Jo 4:7b ESV].
2023 - We keep seeing this about how true believers in Christ also love their brothers and sisters in the church. This is probably aimed at the fact that those teaching false doctrine are excluding people, angry at them, denigrating them, gossiping about them and so on. They do the things to Christian brothers that the world does to enemies. This ought to inform us as to their hearts.
John now turns to a short treatise on love. This verse:
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [1Jo 4:9 ESV]
Also this verse of assurance:
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [1Jo 4:13 ESV]
MSB does not expand on this.
2022 - But it seems to be another important characteristic of the saved. The saved have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Another self-test. And the question popped into my mind "How do we know we have the Holy Spirit in us?". And unfortunately I thought "Well, you can talk in tongues, and rattlesnake bites don't kill you, nor does drinking poison." But that isn't right! The verse doesn't say we know because if we have the Spirit, we will be able to do these outwardly demonstrable things so other men can assure us, yep, you're saved because I didn't understand a word you just said. It doesn't say those who abide can and do demonstrate the power by such specific actions.
2022 - Is it that only those who have the Spirit can truly, believably, pull off vs 15, below? In some cases, this is pretty simple. No atheist is going to proclaim that they have this belief about Christ. No agnostic is going to do it, either. But what about megachurch members? They'll likely know these words by heart, and spout them right out. Some of them will be sincere. Some won't.
Hmmm...a lot of John's tests here, in context, are not self-tests so much as they are lessons in discerning the Spirit of God in others, especially in teachers, prophets, preachers. I think he has already presumed that those who receive this letter are saved, and KNOW ALREADY that they are. These are assurances to them that what they already know and do - that Christ is God's son, that he was flesh in the world, sent by God because of God's great love for us, and died for us, and they love one another and all men, and go about motivated not by the things of the world but by love for all created in God's image and a desire that all might come to repentance. But Satan is going about trying to deceive them into doubting some of these fundamental teachings. To weaken them. If they are saved, he cannot possibly un-save them, he has no such power. But he can weaken them down to non-combatants in the battle that is taking place. If he can do so, he can re-allocate his forces to his weak points, and reinforce the places he is being attacked. He can move his more powerful angels elsewhere to battle against the strong, and leave the misinformed and the weak to his lesser troops. In military terms, John is saying don't be sapped, don't be undermined by these liars who impugn our commander. Hold fast, and doubt the liars, not the commander. Depose them, don't look to them, get away from them.
Yes. This is a better way to understand what this book is about.
2023 - I highlighted the sentence above as I reviewed my notes this year. Look at that! That sentence is about the "low" places in my life. There is the explanation. Through lies, deceit, worldly abundance and so on, I was weakened as a Christian. Satan's forces can do that - but they CANNOT UNSAVE ME!!! That is why I keep coming back to Him, that is why there was always guilt on Sunday after sleeping late, that was why there were things I just would not do and would not say. And I am sure Satan can do worse to others than was done to me. All the way to the point that Christians don't even "remember" their salvation, as we saw in 2 Peter 1! THIS is how it can happen, this is the "What" of how it works. It is a battle. Battle vocabulary applies!
This verse:
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. [1Jo 4:15 ESV]
This leaves out a ton of religions, makes them by definition demonic deceptions, and exposes them to the light of the first test.
2022 - A confirmation verse:
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. [1Jo 4:17 ESV]
Perfected in the sense of affirmed. It is mutual abiding, evidenced by confession of Christ and love one for another, that confidence grows as to our standing on the day of judgment. I would read rapture, but Greek is "krises".
2022 - Vs 18 seems to say that if we fear, we are not yet perfected.
I am out of time, but there is so much more in the last few verses. NEXT YEAR, focus on 13-21. SO much more there!
2025 - Here is all of 18 in the NASB95:
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. [1Jo 4:18 ESV]. What does it say? No fear in love. I think that might mean that if we truly love someone, we have no fear of them. That is, no matter what they do, what they say, we trust them, we do as they say, we follow, we abide, because we fear no action of theirs towards us. This is perfect love. This is first about loving and trusting God, but then he goes on to say that we ought also love our brothers in this way. If we do as someone says because they will punish us, hurt us unless we comply, then we do not love that person. There is nothing of the perfect in this kind of relationship - either with God or man.
As in 19, we cannot hate someone we have seen and claim to love one we have not seen. Another self-examination - not test. We should nod our heads and agree readily that we hate no one, anywhere.
I must close for now....