1st John 4:1-3

1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

There are a lot of different teachings going around. There always have been. We shouldn’t believe everything we read and hear. In the past we’ve been told to compare it ourselves to scripture. John gives us the ultimate test. For him Christian belief can be summed up in one sentence, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And he wrote that in John 1:14. Any spirit, any teaching, which denies that is not from God.

If Jesus didn’t become man and live on earth, then we can’t use Him as our example. If He wasn’t God, then He didn’t have the power to save us!

In verse 3 John writes the spirit of the antichrist, even now is already in the world. The word spirit is important. It’s not the final antichrist. He’s not saying the guy was alive and walking around earth while he was writing this. The spirit was (and is) on earth: the kind of people who are against Christ and spreading false teachings.