1 John 4:6, commentary and pictures

Whether people hear those who are of God distinguishes the spirit of truth from the spirit of error, for those who know God and belong to God listen to the apostolic witness, while those who are not of God reject it. Those who belong to Christ recognize His voice and follow it, and those who know God hear those who are of God and heed God's true messengers and true teachers, while rejection shows not being of God. God's people are distinct from the unbelieving world, and they overcome because God within them is greater than the power in the world, while worldly people speak from the world and are heard by the world. There are two spirits: the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error, which is of Satan.

Every spirit must be tested by the word of God, with which the Spirit agrees, because the devil has great power over minds. God's word is the rule for testing spiritual claims, and teachings and spiritual claims are to be tested by whether they agree with Scripture and acknowledge Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh, for claims that fail this test are not from God and teachings that do not agree with Scripture have no light. The test is fruits and harmony with the whole Bible and with the whole tenor of God's law: if the spirit by which a person is led is in perfect harmony through the whole word he has the truth, but a spirit that conflicts with Scripture and God's law leads into error and must be treated with caution and careful walking lest one be caught in the snare of the devil. A spirit must be tested by the whole Word of God, for the Spirit of God leads into truth and a spirit that conflicts with Scripture and God's law leads into error and should be treated with caution.

The Spirit of God leads into truth and causes sober, righteous, and godly living in this present world, while the spirit of error leads away from the truth into fanaticism, wild movements, and the traditions of men. The spirit of Christ produces sober, righteous, and godly living, yet outward noise or claims of holiness do not prove true piety, for inward devotion may instead show itself in sincere feeling and modest conduct. Only a person under the government of the Spirit of God can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of delusion, and those who belong to Christ recognize His voice and follow it, while minds not guided by the Holy Spirit may fail to discern the difference. Error can be presented in a pleasing way that makes it look like truth.

A person left to self, whose abilities are unsanctified and unconsecrated, grieves the Holy Spirit and is an offense to God, who reads the heart with its intentions and purposes. Exalted by a high opinion of self, such a person is in serious danger of fatal deception and criminal rashness, becoming blind in mind so that delusion is mistaken for truth. False sentiments are of the world and worldly in spirit and character, and false prophets through whom the spirit of antichrist works seek to seduce believers from the truth by spiritualistic suppositions and fables clothed in the garments of truth, captivating the minds of those not established in the present truth. Believers need to watch unto prayer in constant dependence on God, and he in whose heart Christ is formed and to whom Christ is the hope of glory, enlightening, sanctifying and strengthening, will be preserved from false representations of God.

The teaching of the apostles is not to be set aside nor spoken of disrespectfully or dismissed merely because men disagree with part of it or because it conflicts with other views. Those who teach the truth for this time must understand the Scriptures to give the right interpretation, exalting the principles of truth and revealing the spirit of truth in life and character, with God working with them as they speak of the life and miracles of His Son, and understanding Scripture rightly and living out its truth distinguishes the spirit of truth from worldly error. The spirit of error is now manifested as a counterfeit imitating an existing reality, and its present manifestation proves that God manifests Himself to His children by the power of the Holy Spirit in this age of almost unbounded deception and is about to fulfill His word gloriously. God is unchangeable, so as His perfect work through Moses stood despite the resembling miracles of Jannes and Jambres by the power of Satan, and as the gifts of the Spirit were manifested in the followers of Christ despite counterfeits in the days of the apostles, He does not leave His people now without the gifts and manifestations of His Spirit.

Blindness can fall even on those who have long known the truth, so that they call error truth and fail to recognize false teaching, as when the errors in Living Temple were said to be only what had always been taught. This danger meets young people in Battle Creek, where they come in contact with error even inside sanitariums, and there is need for opened eyes to tell light from darkness and the influence of truth from the influence of error. By hearing those who are of God the influence of truth is told from the influence of error.