4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
There are a lot of false voices out there in this fallen world - voices that sound calm, convincing and correct on the surface, but below are backed by the most unsavory spirits. John says core to the truth of any voice is what they do with Christ: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. This reaches to the very core of the nature of Christ: that He is God the Son, fully God and fully man; that He came on this mission to return people to God; that He did die for sins, bury them, and rise again; has gone back to heaven, but is coming again to righteously judge everyone and everything. If we leave any part of that out, we lose part of the truth, and open ourselves up to the spirit of error. Have you learned to listen to the Spirit of truth?
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