Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove 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 which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God;
And every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.
Ye are of God, my 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 as of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.
Is every spirit to be believed?
What point should be settled by investigation?
For what reason?
How can the Spirit of God be known?
What spirit is not of God?
What is such a spirit?
What prediction had been made concerning it?
Had the prediction been fulfilled?
Who had "overcome them"?
What had enabled them to do this?
Of what are "they"?
Of what do they speak?
What heareth them?
Of what are "we"?
Who heareth "us"?
Who "heareth not us"?
What is determined by this means?
NOTE.
"THE connection of the visible with the invisible world, the ministration of angels of God, and the agency of evil spirits, are plainly revealed in the Scriptures, and inseparably interwoven with human history." "Evil spirits, in the beginning created sinless, were equal in nature, power, and glory with the holy beings that are now God's messengers. But, fallen through sin, they are leagued together for the dishonor of God and the destruction of men." Thus evil spirits work "in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2: 2), who yield themselves as servants (Rom. 6: 16), in marvelous ways (Matt. 24: 24), and more and more as time advances (2 Tim. 3: 13), until fire is brought down from heaven (Rev. 13: 13), and, "as the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ." "The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as the safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness." Isa. 8: 20. "Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures." Error is not to be countenanced, although preached by an angel (Gal. 1: 8); neither, because we despise the messenger (Mark 6: 3), are we to reject truth (John 10: 37, 38). The incarnation is the "secret of piety" (1 Tim. 3: 16, Young's translation), the fellowship of which is to be made known to all (Eph. 3: 9), and that as a personal experience (Col. 1: 27). Christ was born of the Spirit (Luke 1: 35), and dwelt in the flesh (John 1: 14), and so he must dwell in our flesh (Eph. 3: 17), living in us (Gal. 2: 20), to give us victory (2 Cor. 2: 14) in the conflict with unseen powers (Eph. 6: 12). Anyone who presents any other hope of salvation is a deceiver and an antichrist. "Jesus fought all our battles during his life upon earth" (John 16: 33), and "we each have a battle to fight with a fallen foe." "The hand of the Infinite is stretched over the battlements of heaven to grasp your hand in its embrace. The mighty Helper is nigh to help the most erring, the most sinful and despairing." God and the world, the followers of Christ and the servants of Satan, "the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error," are in marked contrast. All are found in one of two classes (Matt. 12: 30), and the same person cannot be found in both (Matt. 6: 24).