December 24, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 1 John? Here’s today’s reading:
1 John 4 (NIV)
On Denying the Incarnation
1 Dear friends, 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. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world..............Continue Reading
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
This has always been one of my favorite verses to think on when I feel like this world is just getting to me, when it feels like the tide of immorality and division among people seems to much, a reminder that God is greater than all of that and this temporary time on earth ends in His victory is so encouraging!
But the chapter continues with His great example of love and how we are to love others (even those that my flesh may deem un-lovable) but on Christmas Eve and thinking about that baby coming here to die….a life lived just to die for me…I am overwhelmed and that showing love to someone difficult should pale in comparison to His sacrifice!
1 John 4
1 John 2-4
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1jn.4.9-10.NIV
It is challenging to be a believer in this world and stand for the truth of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ….and it is only going to get worse (most likely). In this chapter John makes it clear why. There is the principle of the antichrist that has always been in the world, and as things wind up to the end (whenever that will be), that influence will become greater until the actual antiChrist comes on the scene. Our comfort in that though should be that we know the truth of God and should be secured and established in that. We really shouldn’t be surprised when people (society even) oppose and reject us, because their thoughts are not God’s thoughts. And we cannot let our frustration, conviction or hurt over that cause us to be shaken from the people God wants us to be. We know the truth. We understand the reality that God has revealed. So we engage with the world with compassion rather than judgement. We hold to and profess the truth boldly even though it may never get a hearing or be regarded. We live out the honesty, purity and kindness that God enables. We turn the other cheek when that is appropriate….
And I have been struck as we have read through this book, how often John emphasizes love: the love that God has for us and the love we are to have for others. It is an essential part of who God is and an essential part of what He has expressed towards us. That love is complete and perfect! And it has been expressed in the most practical and amazing way: Jesus died for us. But God then asks us to not let that love end there, but for His love to fill us so He can love others through us….that’s why He has put His nature in us. And boy do I love that perfect love drives out fear….fear of rejection, inadequacy, punishment, death, the future…just to name a few. And it is when fear is driven out, that we can truly love the way we should…..
What exactly does it mean to “test the spirits?” Is a spirit a person? or a teaching or a belief? “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.” This seems like a very narrow requirement for discerning a legit spirit of God. It seems like there are other ways to conclude that a spirit is not of God, like teaching contrary to God’s word, for instance or teaching that there are many ways to God. I suppose this would directly contradict the confession of Christ.