I John 4:1ff, BibleStudy, TrytheSpirits by JAH

I John 4:1ff Bible Study Try the spirits

1. How many times do your remember the word "spirit" being used in First John up to this point?
(1) John spoke of the Holy Spirit in 3:24.
(2) He was not neglecting the Spirit, but rather waiting for the right moment to introduce Him into the letter.
2. Now in 4:1, he warns us to "not believe every spirit," but to test each one to find out if they are truly from God, or not.
(1) False prophets claim to be speaking in "the Spirit" when actually they have a lying spirit themselves.
(2) 4:2; Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
a. Jesus means Savior and Christ means the promised Messiah.
b. If a spirit does not acknowledge both, then that spirit is misleading the hearer.
aa. It is necessary to put it that way because a person can give any word a false meaning.
bb. A person may say he believes in Jesus, and you may discover he believes Jesus is a special prophet sent by God. (That's similar to calling a 4 star general in the army a special buck private)!
3. The name "antichrist" is self-explanatory.
(1) That person, or being, does whatever he can against Christ.
(2) Like Satan in the Garden of Eden, he will use the most effective thing he can.
a. In the garden, Satan was psychologically clever.
aa. He misused truth to plant temptation in Eve.
bb. He pointed out that the fruit was good for food! cc. After the temptation was planted, he questioned what God had said. (Eve obviously had God's Word second hand. She added to it.)
dd. That gave Satan an opportunity to put doubt in her mind about God's good intentions.
b. Satan will probably avoid saying Jesus is not real, but rather demote Him to a position less than God. That causes doubt in our minds, and makes us more likely to fall for whatever else he says.
(3) Should we fear Satan?
a. No. We should respect his ability, but we have no reason to fear him.
b. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
c. That indicates we have the power as Christians not only to resist the temptations of Satan but also to put him on the defensive and send him packing!
4. 4:4, God is greater than Satan and anything and everything else.
(1) Christians have already defeated Satan. That happened the moment we accepted Christ!
(2) Being from God, we know God listens to us, but ungodly people refuse to listen to us!
(3) That is the way we recognize the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of falsehood.
vv. 4:7ff, God implements His love through us.
1. 4:7; Jesus said that the second greatest command is: "Love one another." (Mt. 22:39)
(1) Love comes from God.
(2) Everyone who lives by love is born of God and knows God.
2. 4:8, "God is love," and anyone who does not love is not born of God. (The word used here for love is agape.)
3. 4:9, We would not have known about spiritual love, except that God sent Jesus to reveal it to us.
4. 4:10; Real spiritual love is God's love to us. It is everything wrapped up in His sending Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
4. 4:11; Our response to that love is to love one another. (God did not expect us to do it by ourselves.)
5. 4:12; No one has ever seen God (God allowed Moses to see His back; Exodus 33:18-23), but if we live in Him and He in us, He completes His love in us!
6: 4:13-18; His Spirit in us is our proof of Salvation.
(1) We know that we are in Him because we have His Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.")
(2) V 15; Anyone who acknowledges Jesus came into the world and is the Son of God, God lives in Him, and he in God.
(3) V 16; We rely on God's love. He is love, and if we live in love, we live in God and God in us.
(4) V 17; Love is completed among us, and we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment because we are like Him now!
(5) V 18; There is no fear in love. Completed love drives out fear. Those who fear are concerned about punishment, and those who are fearful do not have God's love completed in them.