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.

1 John 4:1 ESV

Why Does John Tell His Readers To “Test the Spirits?”

I taught on this passage this past Sunday in our discipleship community at Church. First John 4:1–6 is a difficult passage because it contains both universal principles and contextual principles (that is, principles that pertained specifically to the historical situation of John’s readers).

In short, John tells his readers to test the spirits so that they can discern between gospel-centered teachers and false ones. This is because there were many “false prophets, deceivers, and antichrists” among the community John is writing to in and around Ephesus (cf. 1 John 2:18–27; 4:1–6; 2 John 7–11). John’s community probably knew some of these false prophets.¹

The specific problem facing John’s community was the question of Christ’s identity and nature. It was not difficult for people to grasp that the Christ was divine. It was, however, unthinkable to some that the divine Christ would be literally incarnate— to actually take on flesh and be human. Thus, it was common to believe one of two things: (1) the divine Christ descended upon the human Jesus at baptism and then ascended back to heaven before the human Jesus was crucified; (2) the divine Christ only appeared to be human, but he was actually a phantom.

All the Apostles condemned such beliefs as incorrect.²

This is why John tells his community to test the spirits, and anyone who claims that Jesus did not come in the flesh is not of God (cf. 1 John 2:18–27; 4:1–6; 2 John 7–11).

Doctrinal Questions Then, Doctrinal Questions Now

This question about Jesus was not unique to John’s first century community near Ephesus. In fact, it was a question that plagued the church for the first 400 years. 

The Church has always faced doctrinal questions:

• Early Church— who/what is Christ?
• Medieval Church— who/what is God?
• Modern Church— who/what is humanity?

This historical perspective is incredibly helpful for multiple reasons.

First, it lets us know that doctrinal questions are not unique to our time.

Second, it helps us make sense of the questions our culture asks— what does it mean to be human; what is a woman; is same-sex marriage biblical; is an individual’s gender determined by anatomy or the individual? All of these questions flow out of the overarching question that contemporary society no longer knows the answer to: what is a human / what does it mean to be human?

Third, it is helpful to read and reflect on how our ancestors in the faith addressed these questions. If we believe the Church has the source of truth, then it matters that we both know that truth, and we know how to communicate it in a way that is consistent with our love for God and humanity.

Fourth, we must recognize that many people within society are going to attempt to answer the prevailing questions of the age, and this is going to produce a plethora of teachings that fall along the spectrum of true, incomplete, and incorrect. The end result is a swirling amphitheater of noise, and everyone is left asking the question: what is true?!

Similarities Between John’s World and Ours

Returning to 1 John 4, we need to recognize that John is speaking on two different levels. We will call the first level the general level. The second level will be called the specific level. The general level is that believers in Christ need to learn how to test the spirits in order to discern between true and false teaching. This has proven true for all Christians, in all places, in all times. The specific level refers to the false teachings circulating in the specific setting of John’s audience: that Jesus did not truly come in the flesh. This same question/teaching may or may not surface in this specific way in all times and all places.

We can easily see the overlap between John’s general topic for his audience and our world today. We encounter people who have questions about the doctrines of Christianity just like John’s audience did. We also have people attempting to provide theological answers to those questions that don’t actually align with the biblical revelation.

The specific questions people ask, however, may or may not be the same as the ones asked during John’s lifetime in the first century. You will probably encounter people who have questions about Jesus (somewhat the same as John’s audience), but most people today will question Jesus’ divinity, not His humanity (the opposite of John’s audience).

Additionally, you will likely encounter people questioning the traditional Christian doctrines of humanity— why does the Church say there are only two genders? The general acts of questioning and seeking to provide answers to those questions happens today just as it did in first century Ephesus, but many of the specific questions are different.

Fulfilling John’s Instruction to Test the Spirits

So where do we go from here? How do we test the spirits as John instructs us?

That will be the topic of Part 2. I want to lead you through scenarios that you will likely encounter and give you a framework for “testing the spirits.” I want to do this topic justice, and I fear covering everything in one post would be too lengthy.

So stay tuned for Part 2!

Until then,

Happy Bibleing!

Footnotes

1. See 1 John 2:19 — “they went out from us, but they were not of us.” ↩︎
2. John begins his letter by telling his readers that he is proclaiming to them what he saw, touched, and heard (cf. 1 John 1:1–4). ↩︎