“And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” 1 John 3:23-24.
Verse 23 has been included above to remind us what these commandments are; to believe on His Son and to love one another.
To believe on God’s Son Jesus Christ is obeyed when we accept Christ as our savior from sin, though it might be added that those who have accepted Christ as savior did so in faith and we are also expected to live our lives out in faith in Christ.
“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…” Colossians 2:6.
You received Christ Jesus as Lord by faith, if you did indeed receive Him.
If you have accepted Christ as savior, yet are still unsure, there is a simple test; do we truly love the brethren?
It is odd, you will suddenly like people whom you either did not care for before or who were inconsequential to you; or you hated, for that matter.
Years ago I knew a fellow whom I liked a lot, his brother was a Christian. My friend would actually look physically ill when he discussed his brother’s attempts to speak to him about Christ.
Now let us take verse 24 and rephrase it to make it a little less confusing.
“Now he who keeps God’s commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that God abides in us, by the Holy Spirit whom God has given us.” 1 John 3:24 rephrase.
We know that the Christian is sealed with the Holy Spirit when they are saved and that the Spirit is a pledge to us.
“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:5.
The Bible marginal amplifies this guarantee, as a down payment, earnest; until the day of redemption.
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14.
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.” 2 Corinthians 1:21-22.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” Romans 8:16.
Jesus said this in His letter to the church of Laodicea.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20.
This is Christ in you, within your heart, having fellowship as friends; the God of the universe telling you secrets that the ungodly will never learn.
God changes the drab canvas of this world painted by lies with true beauty as seen through God’s eyes, and replaces hopelessness with hope and a future.
Having introduced us to God’s true Holy Spirit the author now shows us how to recognize the counterfeit.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I John 4:1.
With this statement we are reminded of the apostle’s words in 1 John 2:18-27 which in part, says this.
“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come…” 1 John 2:18a.
It should not amaze us, though it does, that there was such a flood of heresy coming upon the Christian church so soon after Christ’s death and resurrection, well before the Apostle John’s death (about 98 A. D.) as can be seen here.
Even the Apostle Peter wrote of these heretics in his second letter written circa 66 A. D. and Jude, written around 70-80 A. D. excoriates these heretical blasphemers.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
“…knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. But there were also false prophets among the people [Jews], even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” 2 Peter 1:20-2:2.
But the world will always prefer the doctrines of demons, make no mistake.
All error is meant when speaking of these lying spirits, but the heresy of Gnosticism is most specifically the subject in these epistles.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” 1 John 4:2-3.
One of the beliefs of the Gnostics was that deity cannot unite with matter or a body. This is in absolute opposition to what Scripture teaches about Jesus.
“And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:1-3.
When Jesus took Peter, James and John to the Mount of Transfiguration and they had seen Jesus with Moses and Elijah, Scripture states.
“And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!’” Mark 9:7.
There is nothing in Scripture to confirm the word of the Gnostics.
Years ago I read the book, “I Talked with Spirits”, published in 1970 by Tyndale House Publishers; written by Victor H. Ernest.
This man, who was deeply into Spiritism back in the nineteen twenties, read the verses in 1 John 4:2-3 quoted earlier and decided to test the spirits. During a séance the medium allowed the participants to ask the spirit questions.
Mister Ernest asked the familiar spirit if Christ had come in the flesh, whereupon the evil spirit knocked the medium out of his chair and left, ending the session.
The spirits we are to test however are not necessarily of this type, rather it may be a doctrine or teacher that your are hearing about, in which case you will still need to measure what is taught with pure Scripture.
When I say pure Scripture I mean that which is contained within your Bible when you read it, not the Scripture as explained by the heretic professing the doctrine.
One man used to explain how Scripture could be manipulated to mean anything when taken out of context. He would quote these fragments of Scripture together, “Judas went and hanged himself. Go and do thou likewise.” taken from Matthew 27:5b, Luke 10:37b.
I have seen the book of Romans twisted like taffy and corrupted with humanist writings to justify perverse behavior; it was both amazing and infuriating to see.
You may ask, “Is that all. Just ask them if Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?” Suppose someone comes to you and says:
“I have a new doctrine that I have found in the Bible.”
Whereupon he lays out a pitch that sounds good, but something is not right. So what does he teach? You may then ask.
“Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh?”
“Yes indeed He did. Many famous scholars along with numerous manuscripts from long ago all agree that Christ was a man. A number of the great religions also confirm this, I might add.”
“Well, um, I guess I mean was Jesus the Son of God?”
“Of course He was the son of god, we are all children of god, Jesus merely awakened to the god consciousness in us all and ascended to a higher plane of consciousness, much like, say, Buddha.”
“I mean, is He the eternal self existent Son of God from eternity past, before all creation?”
“Well, um, the best theologians dispute that claim on the basis that He could hardly be God’s Son if He always existed. Besides, such a theory is hardly logical.”
“Well then, you would not say that He is God the Son come to earth in the form of a man?”
“Oh no, as I said before, we are all gods and children of god, and Jesus, having ascended to a higher plane, was able to teach us the way of god consciousness and how to become better citizens of this world. It is tragic that those of a small mind murdered Him cutting short His life of teaching and example. It is too bad that so much fantasy has been built around His life with things like miracles and such.”
“So then, you reject the literal interpretation of the Bible, Christ as the eternal Son of God, that God came to earth in the form of a man and being all man and all God, performed miracles, lived a sinless life, and died for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father?”
“Well, you see, that is not the Jesus I see in the Bible.”
“Perhaps your new doctrine is not so new.”
As you can see demonic doctrine often cannot be recognized with just one question, it may take a few, but it is impossible for them to get around the reality of who Christ really was, the living God who gave Himself to save our eternal souls.
“Hi, I am starting a Bible study group, would you like to come?”
“What do you teach?”
“We believe that all Scripture is the inerrant word of God and teach that Jesus Christ is the living God who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. We believe that God the Son came to earth in the form of a man, lived a perfect sinless life, died for our sins, rose the third day, is seated at the right hand of God the Father’s throne, and awaits the day when He will return for His own.”
“What time does it start?”
Test the Spirits, 1 John 3:24-4:3 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 1-11-12, updated on 6-30-18.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.