Test the Spirits

Rev. Andrew Belt, pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Marshfield, WI, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 John 4:1-6. St. John exhorts us to test the spirits, so that we would know which are from God and which are from the antichrist. The diagnostic is this: does this spirit teach that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Those spirits that do not teach this truth are not from God; we must take care not to listen to their lies. We hold to the truth because we are from God, who is in us and greater than the world. Distinguishing between the Spirit of God and the spirit of error equips us to show true love to each other. “The Love of God” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the three epistles written by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. As St. John rejoiced to be the disciple loved by Jesus, so he writes his epistles to give us the same joy when we know that we are the beloved of God. God’s love for us in Jesus shapes our lives as Christians in all that we believe, say, and do.