1Jo 4:1-8 | PNT | STEP | Trying the Spirits SUMMARY OF I JOHN 4: How to Distinguish the Spirits of Truth and Error. Love a Proof That We Are Born of God. God's Great Love for Us. How We Secure the Indwelling of God. How Love Is Made Perfect. Believe not every spirit . The last chapter has closed concerning the Spirit, but some are moved by other spirits than that of Christ. But try the spirits whether they are of God . Test the spirit that moves teachers and see whether it be of God. tells how to test. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world . There were many false teachers in that age as well as in ours, and some claimed to be inspired.

1 John 4:1-8

Trying the Spirits SUMMARY OF I JOHN 4: How to Distinguish the Spirits of Truth and Error. Love a Proof That We Are Born of God. God's Great Love for Us. How We Secure the Indwelling of God. How Love Is Made Perfect.

Believe not every spirit. The last chapter has closed concerning the Spirit, but some are moved by other spirits than that of Christ.

But try the spirits whether they are of God. Test the spirit that moves teachers and see whether it be of God. 1Jo 4:2 tells how to test.

Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. There were many false teachers in that age as well as in ours, and some claimed to be inspired. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come . . . is of

God. He who confesses from the heart that Christ has come in the flesh shows that he has the Spirit of God.

In the flesh. One of the heresies was that Christ had come but that there had been no incarnation. And every spirit that confesseth not . . . is not of God. If Christ is denied, it is not God's Spirit, which always speaks truth, but that of antichrist. See notes on 1Jo 2:18,19. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them. The saints had overcome these false prophets, but they were of God, because greater is he that is in you, and the Spirit in them was mightier than he that is in the world, than the evil spirit, that of the prince of the world, which was in the false prophets. They are of the world. The false teachers. They are not of God.

The world heareth them because they are of its spirit and speak of it. We are of God. Hence speaks God's message, and those that know God accept the message.

Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. By the principles given in 1Jo 4:2-5 we distinguish between the spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit) and that of error. Let us love one another. He that is born of God must love because the Father is love; hence love shows that we are of him and know him. He that loveth not knoweth not God. He who knows not God does not love.