3066—Testing the Spirits
By Editor
Please explain 1 John 4:1-3. What are the spirits spoken of, and what is meant by "testing the spirits"? R. A. B. The spirits spoken of include every one who may teach anything pertaining to life, moral or immoral. It does not necessarily mean that these spirits are manifest in beings without human bodies. The Bible teaches us that there are two great opposing forces in this world. The center of one is our Lord Jesus Christ; of the other, Satan. Our Lord Jesus Christ works through His own children, His chosen servants, His Word. His Spirit is everywhere, pleading with men to turn to Him, to turn from evil. On the other hand, Satan works through his agents, his angels of evil, wicked men. Sometimes he brings his influences to bear entirely apart from human agency in suggestions to temptation. Against all these John warns us: "Believe not every spirit, but prove" whatever may come to us, and however it may come to us,—and especially if it comes to us as an angel of light. Satan is the great deceiver of the world; he "deceiveth the whole world." And "many false prophets are gone out into the world;" these are moved by the wrong spirit. One of the tests which the apostle gives is right here: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." Now one of the false doctrines of Satan is that Jesus Christ is in every man, always, without regard to faith or man's condition, and all that man has to do is to recognize that Christ is there. They call it sometimes "the divine immanence." The apostle tells us that Christ comes in the flesh, and He comes by faith. See Gal. 2:20. Now every spirit that confesses that—that Christ comes into the flesh, through faith in God, according to God's own plan of salvation—is of God, of course; but every spirit that confesses not Jesus, is not of God, and that is quite evident. The one great test which God has given us, which includes all other tests, is His holy Word. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20.