1 John 4:1-21

(1 John 4:1-21)

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him, because he first loved us.  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

 

Not to believe in all the spirits means that we have a spirit that we do not believe, and we must be careful because there are spirits that do not belong to God. There was a false prophet who was captured by a spirit that did not belong to God. In 2 Peter 2:1, which uses the same Greek word for a false prophet, it is translated as a false teacher. At the end of the first century, when the apostle John wrote the epistle of John, the false prophet was not the time of a prophet who fulfilled his mission as a preacher of God's Word, like those of the Old Testament. Since the revelation to be recorded in the Bible by the Apostle John on Patmos was already completed, it was very likely that the prophecy or teaching in the name of the prophet would be false. So, the apostle John reports that many false prophets have come into the world. Those who prophesy what is false or who teach what is false should be heeded, telling them how to discern them.

『Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 』그리고『And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God』 Those who deny the incarnation that Jesus came as a man are not of God. Jesus' incarnation of poetry is the discrimination criterion of whether or not he belongs to the Spirit of God, and it is the criterion of heresy. The spirit that does not admit Jesus is a spirit that denies Jesus' incarnation, so the apostle John calls them the spirits of the antichrist.

 

The spirit of the antichrist is a spirit of deception, a spirit that opposes the spirit of truth. The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Delusion, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Antichrist, the Spirit belonging to God and the Spirit not belonging to God. The criterion for discriminating them is who they listen to. Do they speak the world and listen to the world, or do they listen to the apostles and evangelists based on the word of God? The words of the world are all that come from worldly values, including denying God's work of salvation and denying Jesus' incarnation. We must ponder whether we hear the words of the world and the body and mind move according to the words of the world, or whether we listen to the word of God and be moved by the word of God.

 

We should listen to God without hearing the world, and the apostle John specifically says to love one another.『Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 』 The love here is not love in the world, but love to save the spirit. It is love as an agape followed by self-sacrifice. God's love is a love to send our only-begotten Son to save our human beings. God's love is the love that caused the only-begotten Son to sacrifice as a peace offering to atone for human sin. In this way, God loves us, so we deserve to love each other. Therefore, saving the spirit of another person would be to carry his cross.『No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 』

When we are born again in Jesus Christ, we know that the Holy Spirit dwells. When we die on the cross with Jesus Christ, we know that God dwells in us. That is why God's love is completed in us.『Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.』 So the saints must be dead to the world. When you become a dead person to the world, fear disappears. 『There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. There is punishment in fear. Fear arises because God's love is ignored.『If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?』

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