1 John 4:1, commentary and pictures

Beloved are warned not to take every spiritual claim as from God but to put the spirits to the proof to see whether they are of Him, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. The proving is done above all by the Word of God, which is the all-sufficient rule and detector by which every teaching, experience and miracle must be tried, especially when the counterfeit closely resembles the truth. The appointed proof is whether the spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, affirming His incarnation and divinity, while denial marks the spirit of antichrist already in the world. That confession is tested further by harmony with the whole tenor of God's law and commandments and by character and fruit, not by mere words or noisy profession, for the Spirit of Christ leads into truth and sober, righteous, godly living. The command lays personal responsibility on each believer and on believers counseling together, and it presses with special force now in the perils of the last days when deceptions are so powerful that even the elect would be deceived if possible.

Command to Test Spirits

Beloved are commanded not to believe every spirit, spiritual claim, or prophetic claim as from God, but to try whether the spirits are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. The trying is by whether teaching agrees with God's word and whether the spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, with every spirit so confessing being of God and every spirit not confessing Him being not of God but the spirit of antichrist already in the world. Communications attributed to the dead are deceptive messages from evil spirits, and skepticism, spiritualism, and rejection of divine truth come under the same warning, with denial of Christ's divinity marking the spirit of antichrist. The command guards belief on the name of Jesus Christ and love for one another and keeping of God's commandments, by which believers dwell in God and God dwells in them and they know He remains in them through the Spirit He has given.

Trying the spirits applies especially to prophesyings, visions, and claimed revelations, which are to be proved rather than despised or quenched. A vision is to be accepted only when there is clear evidence that it comes from God, and what proves good is to be held fast without rejecting the Spirit of God. Those who claim special revelations and prophetic authority may be led by different spirits, and false prophets may present themselves as God's messengers, so discernment must guard against deception while avoiding both quenching the Spirit and being led by Satan's spirit. This was seen in the Reformation setting, where self-proclaimed prophets with claims of revelation and divine authority threatened to turn people away from Scripture.

The command lays personal responsibility on each believer to hear in order to learn truth and walk in it, to examine closely and prove all things, to go to God in prayer for enlightenment, and to walk in given light with self-examination. No human guidance is to be followed automatically without evidence that those giving it are under the influence of God's Spirit, and those not fully converted may mistake the enemy's suggestions for the Spirit of God and must examine themselves to find where they fail. Such prayerful proving enables distinction between the genuine work of God and the imitative work of the powers of darkness when Satan's wonderful miracle-working power is displayed and the enemy comes as an angel of light. The need is acute in a time of peril marked by questioning, criticizing, denouncing, passing judgment, and causing disunion to draw away from truth, including persons, men and young girls, who cry out against the church, claim to be sent while running without being sent, blend heresy, dishonesty, and falsehood while deep in sin, advance erratic ideas, denounce all who reject them as warring against the Spirit of the Lord, produce no unity and no evidence of the grace of Christ, work directly against Christ's prayer for unity, and belong to Satan's line. A man may hear and acknowledge the whole truth and explain the way of salvation to others, and yet know nothing of personal piety and true experimental religion and himself be a castaway.

The test was urgent when the times were full of peril for the church, with satanic delusions everywhere and minds wandering through skepticism and deceptive doctrines. False spirits then were people who pretended to be true to God's cause while being deceivers, denying Christ and His gospel, bringing in damnable heresies, and living in transgression of the divine law, and meeting that peril requires bearing faithful and earnest testimony for the Lord upon every suitable occasion. The command has special force at the present time because spiritual deceptions and false prophesyings abound, and today many false prophets have gone forth bringing false doctrines that lead men and women to walk in forbidden paths at the very time when just such a repentance work as John the Baptist did needs to be done. It applies amidst the perils of the last days, requiring the grace given to those striving lawfully for every victory and the power of a living Christ when rescuing souls that helped Dr. Kellogg stand where he stands. Near the end Satan's deceptions will be so powerful that even the elect would be deceived if possible, so discernment must be sharpened by divine enlightenment to recognize God's Spirit and resist deception.

Standard That Proves Spirits

The Word of God is the standard, safeguard, treasure-house of inspired truth, all-sufficient rule of faith and practice, and detector of error by which all teaching, religious experience, inspiration, and every claim and miracle must be tried. Spirits and their teachings are not to be accepted automatically but proved by Scripture, especially when a counterfeit closely resembles the truth. True Christianity receives the Scriptures as the great treasure-house and tries all religious truth and knowledge by them, wielding that Word as a mighty weapon in fearless defense of the gospel in every conflict. The test applied when men claimed special revelations from heaven, instruction by the angel Gabriel, familiar conversations with the Lord, divine wisdom to expound Scripture, and commission as apostles and prophets sent to complete Luther's work, and such extraordinary spirits must be examined with care neither to quench the Spirit of God nor to be led astray by the spirit of Satan.

The Holy Spirit is still needed to open the Scriptures and bring their meaning home, but the Spirit was never given to take the place of the Bible. True teaching of the Spirit will never disagree with the Word because the Spirit inspired the Word. Professed enlightenment of the Holy Spirit that sets aside Scripture and follows inner impressions, feelings, and changeable impressions is not from God, and the spirit controlling such persons is not the Spirit of God. Following impressions to the neglect of the Scriptures leads only to confusion, deception, and ruin, and serves the designs of the evil one.

The divinely appointed test of a claimed prophetic gift given in the following verses is whether the spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Every spirit that so confesses is of God and affirms His incarnation, while every spirit that does not confess Him is not of God but is the spirit of antichrist already in the world and at work. Denying Christ's divinity marks that spirit of antichrist, and the warning applies to skepticism, spiritualism, spiritualist communications attributed to the dead as deceptive messages from evil spirits, and rejection of divine truth. The command has special force amid the perils of the last days and requires the grace given to those striving lawfully for every victory and the power of a living Christ when rescuing souls.

Agreement is tested by harmony with the whole Bible and the whole tenor of God's law, including His commandments and the moral law as the old commandment from the beginning spoken at Sinai amid signs of divine power. Claims that contradict it have no light, and this discernment prepares believers to withstand deceptive signs and error even when they come with spiritual claims or miracles. The Spirit of truth leads people in the path of God's commandments, while the spirit of error turns people away from God's law and away from truth. The Holy Spirit and the Word agree, so spiritual experience is to be judged by Scripture and followed carefully when it does not harmonize with it, because the devil has great power over minds and following a discordant spirit puts a person in his snare.

The test is revealed in character and fruit, not in mere words, noisy claims, professions of holiness, or pretensions to entire sanctification that follow human traditions. The Spirit of Christ leads into truth and causes sober, righteous, and godly living in this present world with inward piety, while a spirit that leads away from truth and does not produce that life is not the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ. The test of confessing that Christ has come in the flesh is shown in character, and only the light of God's Word shining from a converted soul turned from all idols, making God's will its own will, in good works makes a person a disciple of Christ. Only that heavenly light reflected in followers' lives can save souls, and those who submit their ways and characters to the Lord and do His Word experience His guiding presence while the fruit they bear shows their character. Sympathy, confidence, and reception are given only to those proved by expressions, Christian life, character, words of eternal life and light, and messages from heaven to be of God, and withheld from false accusing voices.

The verse guards belief on the name of Jesus Christ and love for one another and keeping God's commandments. By these believers dwell in God and God dwells in them, and they know He remains in them through the Spirit He has given.

False Prophets and Deceptions

False spirits are not disembodied influences only, but people who pretend to be true to God's cause while deceiving, denying Christ and His gospel, bringing in damnable heresies, and living in transgression of the divine law. They may arise even among those who claim to support the truth, and misuse truth itself to stir strife and confusion and to draw away from the truth. In time of peril this appears as questioning, criticizing, denouncing, passing judgment, and causing disunion, with men and even young girls crying out against the church, claiming to be sent while running without being sent, blending heresy, dishonesty and falsehood while deep in sin, advancing erratic ideas, and denouncing all who reject them as warring against the Spirit of the Lord. Such work does not produce unity and does not evidence the grace of Christ, but works directly against Christ's prayer for unity and belongs to Satan's line. A man may hear and acknowledge the whole truth and explain the way of salvation to others, and yet know nothing of personal piety and true experimental religion and himself be a castaway.

Communications claimed to come from the dead are deceptive messages from evil spirits, to be rejected rather than accepted as from God. Skepticism, spiritualism, and rejection of divine truth belong to the same deception, and denying Christ's divinity marks the spirit of antichrist. Through spiritualistic suppositions and fables clothed in garments of truth, the spirit of antichrist seeks to seduce believers with captivating ideas, especially minds not established in present truth. Holding to apostolic teaching rather than setting it aside preserves from these false representations of God.

Fanatical and extremist deceptions include wild movements, claims of direct leading, and pretensions to entire sanctification that follow human traditions rather than Scripture. They include extreme impressions and demonstrative practices that claim the Spirit of God while leading toward deception and away from duty. Popular religious excitement can present an attractive spiritual appearance, stir curiosity, and draw people away from truth, only to be abandoned by its converts when the excitement fades.

Setting aside Scripture and exalting human wisdom takes three forms: rationalism that idolizes reason and makes it the criterion of religion, Romanism that claims for the pope an unbroken, unchangeable inspiration from the apostles concealing extravagance and corruption under apostolic commission and usurped authority, and fanaticism whose inspiration proceeds from no higher source than vagaries of the imagination and subverts all authority human and divine. Human reason, papal claims of continuing apostolic inspiration, and messages arising from imagination cannot replace Scripture as the source and standard of religious truth. At Zwickau the pastor tried the enthusiasts by Scripture and was not deceived, for their pretended revelations and teachings opposed reform and drew people away from God's word. In Germany in the Reformation men claimed special revelations from heaven, instruction by the angel Gabriel, familiar conversations with the Lord, divine wisdom to expound Scripture, and commission as apostles and prophets sent by God to complete Luther's work, as with Munzer and his associates, and such extraordinary spirits must be examined with care neither to quench the Spirit of God nor to be led astray by Satan's spirit.

The counterfeit must be a close imitation of the genuine, else it would not deceive, and it may speak truth on some points while mixing error on others and leading into false paths. Its methods include flattery joined to false accusations, rebukes, dreams and visions, childish figures and illustrations for sacred heavenly things, and mingling of the sublime and the ridiculous and the sacred and the common with cheap, earthly, sensual talk and action. Its marks are reproving and rebuking others for pride and selfishness, impurity and corruption, then healing the wound with flattery about wonderful and great things to be done, with a counterfeit holiness and extreme position on moral purity that produces impurity and defilement instead of the work essential for the time. Seeming to be inspired does not prove a work is of God, even when the speaker draws many interested and deceived hearers, and claims of revelation lacking divine credentials are not to be promoted as true.

The warning applied at Minneapolis, where agitation over the law in Galatians and the opposition shown were controlled not by the Spirit of Jesus but by a blinding leaven, and those deceived with wrong ideas of their brethren failed to see it. Believers assembled together have the duty to discern whether the spirit controlling words and actions is the Spirit of Jesus Christ or a deceiving spirit, and whether a message bears an uncertain sound or the voice of the true Shepherd; to remain in blindness with eyes closed to seeing and ears closed to hearing brings no further light or strength or hope, but certain darkness. It applies also to ministers who present errors striking at the foundation of faith by giving heed to seducing spirits, drawing minds away from the Scriptures by misconstruing and testifying to falsehoods and so confusing the Scriptures that many lose their bearings, a work in which Satan delights as he prepares fallacies of every kind to play the game of life for souls. Amid the perils of the last days it requires the grace given to those striving lawfully for every victory and the power of a living Christ in rescuing souls ensnared where Dr. Kellogg stood.

Satan uses the errors of extremists and fanatics to cast reproach on the true ministry of the Holy Spirit and to cause God's people to neglect this vital source of strength provided by Christ. Trying the spirits requires not pronouncing against a work of God because the human instrument is fallible and erring or because objectionable things appear with it, but discerning that distinguishes God's work from the counterfeit, rejoicing when fruits show God is at work, exercising firm and well-balanced judgment, presenting cautions in love, letting the good stand as God's work and rejecting the evil as the enemy's work, since the enemy always seeks to intrude deceptions where God works. Failure to try the spirits in this balanced way leaves minds dazed and confused, not knowing what is of God and what is not, and throws them onto Satan's battlefield in suspicion and settled unbelief.

Testing Together Faithfully

Trying the spirits means drawing sentiments and conclusions from Scripture searched earnestly, not from hereditary tendencies, personal inclinations, human sympathy and attention, sentimentalism, much reading of books, or changeable feelings and impressions. Scripture is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice and detector of error, giving power to discern between false and true Christian life and character, to expose a life of human love that has not appreciated the love of Christ and an undercurrent of double-dealing that greatly offends God, and to lead feet that have not stood in the footprints of the Man of Calvary to stand on the Rock where the True Shepherd leads. Minds must be under the constant control of the Spirit of God in order to detect the counterfeit from the genuine, and extraordinary claims such as special revelations from heaven, instruction by the angel Gabriel, familiar conversations with the Lord, divine wisdom to expound Scripture, and commission as apostles and prophets to complete Luther's work must be examined with care neither to quench the Spirit of God nor to be led astray by the spirit of Satan.

Trying the spirits is not to be done by oneself alone, for Satan is very wily and judgment, wisdom, discrimination and discernment can be perverted by prior connection with spiritualism so that a person cannot always of himself tell or discern the spirits. God has placed appointed help and leadership in the church for the help, encouragement and strength of His people, and connection with them gives help in discerning. To pass these by and insist that light must come through no other channel but direct from God places a person where he is liable to deception, to be overthrown, and to spiritual ruin.

The test examines the spirit revealed in expressions, words and actions to see whether it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ or a deceiving, false spirit, whether Christian life and character show God is with them, and whether they bring words of eternal life and light and messages from heaven as servants led by the Spirit of God. Sympathy, confidence and reception are to be given only to those proved to be of God and withheld from false accusing voices, and believers assembled together have the duty and opportunity to discern whether a message bears an uncertain sound or the voice of the true Shepherd through His messenger. The voice of the Spirit of God addresses the heart, convicts of sin, and works to uproot selfishness, while the enemy's voice leavens religious experience with selfishness, resistance to and insulting of the Holy Spirit, and rejection of light. That resistance perverts principles, confuses the senses and clouds judgment, and after years of blindness the ability to see and to distinguish the two voices is in grave doubt, as seen when agitation over the law in Galatians and opposition were controlled not by the Spirit of Jesus but by a blinding leaven that those deceived with wrong ideas of their brethren failed to see, leaving those who remain in that position and silence with no further light or strength or hope but certain darkness as one who will not open eyes to see and ears to hear.

No fallible man subject to Satan's temptations, with strong and weak points of character, should be believed without testing, for his word cannot transform character and assumption is worthless because it can be made to favor selfish ideas. Human guidance must not be accepted automatically without evidence that those giving it are under the influence of God's Spirit, for each person remains responsible before God to exercise discernment rather than follow men's counsel, and guarding is needed against being beguiled by those who do not know what they speak and by many kinds of influences at work on human hearts that influence in a wrong direction. Assuming one's own judgment is without flaw while condemning all who disagree, and demeriting the words the Lord sends, causes great loss, and believing every spirit ends in believing that nothing is trustworthy.

Claims to receive revelations from God, every spirit and every message professing to be from heaven, every claim to new revelation, and dreams and visions must be met with the greatest care, close watching, much praying, and sharp, clear, keen discernment with eyes anointed to see clearly, for trying the spirits is one of the greatest perplexities in discovering the snares of Satan and distinguishing genuine from false and misleading. Workers must counsel together about every new thing introduced, no one man's mind is to judge alone or place important matters relating to God's cause before the public, and thorough evidence and divine credentials are required before acting. Untested claims must not be called to the attention of people or presented to them as truth or to the flock of God, because spurious and counterfeit revelations are in the field and if encouraged Satan will use them to bring plenty of false doctrines, and those who encourage false productions bear greater blame than the one making the claims. Deceptive ideas and misleading expressions must not be allowed to insinuate themselves among God's people, ensnaring souls before it is discovered that these ideas are not of God.

Faithful testing requires diligently searching the camp and earnest inquiry rather than accepting without proof everyone who claims to be a believer or a Seventh-day Adventist, including learning from fathers and mothers what their children are in character, in order to guard the purity of institutions like the sanitarium and school and to separate the vile and impure from the righteous and pure. Those identified with the message given must have keen, clear spiritual perception to discern the spirit of messages given and strive to find out from what source they come, and those who do this will be guarded by the Lord God of Israel from being led astray, for God is not to be trifled with. The command divides true and faithful messages received from heaven from new theories that are not the truth, requires ministers of God to bear clear warning against such theories and to point out where they would lead if received, requires those who have received present truth not to be easily deceived and led from the true path into strange paths, and requires watchmen to be wide-awake to discern the outcome of all specious reasoning, because serious errors will be brought in to lead the people astray.

Presenting as a Thus saith the Lord words that were not from God brings a strange spirit, an unclean spirit under garments of sanctity, a strong overbearing spirit, and fanaticism so mingled and interwoven with the workings of the Spirit of God that many accept it all as from God and are deceived and misled into exaggerated movements, plans and devisings that bring in what Satan wants. Accepting such words unsettles faith, makes souls ready to doubt the words that truly come from God, and leaves some no longer reached by warnings, invitations and messages from heaven. Seducing efforts come through many false prophets through whom the spirit of antichrist works by spiritualistic suppositions and fables clothed in garments of truth, presenting captivating ideas to minds not established in present truth, and trying the spirits requires watching unto prayer in constant dependence on God and holding to the teaching of the apostles rather than setting it aside or speaking disrespectfully of it. Those in whose heart Christ is formed and to whom Christ is the hope of glory, enlightening, sanctifying and strengthening them, will be preserved from false representations made of God and from false sentiments prevailing that are of the world and worldly in spirit and character, when those who teach present truth understand the Scriptures to give their right interpretation and reveal the spirit of truth in life and character.