CHAPTER 4

(A.D. 90)

TEST THE SPIRITS

¹Beloved, believe not every spirit (behind every doctrine there is a spirit; if its true Doctrine, the Holy Spirit; if its false doctrine, evil spirits), but try the spirits whether they are of God (the criteria is, is it Scriptural?): because many false prophets are gone out into the world (and they continue unto this hour).

²Hereby know ye the Spirit of God (as Believers, we are to know what the Spirit of God sanctions): Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God (the Incarnation of Christ speaks of the Cross of Christ, the very reason for which He came; this means the Spirit of God will place his sanction on the Cross and the Cross alone; anything else is not of God):

³And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God (Christ came in the flesh to go to the Cross; this refutes the error of Gnosticism, which claims the flesh of Christ was evil, as much as all matter they claim is evil; also, anyone who denigrates or even minimizes the Cross in any way is not of God): and this is that spirit of Antichrist (the spirit that denies the Cross is the spirit of the Antichrist), whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (The Doctrine of the Cross is essential to the Christian system. He who does not hold it cannot be either regarded as a Christian or recognized as a Christian Teacher.)

⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (some of the Christians of Johns day were tempted to believe the doctrine that denigrated the Cross, but had overcome that temptation): because greater is He (the Holy Spirit) Who is in you, than he (Satan) who is in the world.

⁵They are of the world (refers to the false teachers of Verse 3): therefore speak they of the world (refers to the fact that the source of their false doctrines is the world), and the world hears them (because the false teachers are saying what the world wants to hear).

⁶We are of God (those who accept Christ and the Cross): he who knows God hears us; he who is not of God hears not us. (Mans attitude toward the Message of the Incarnate Saviour ranks him on Gods side or the worlds.) Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error. (The Spirit of Truth is the Holy Spirit, Who leads us into all Truth, which refers to Jesus Christ and Him Crucified [I Cor. 1:23; 2:2]. The spirit of error refers to any doctrine that denigrates or ignores the Cross, which is fostered by Satan, who employs seducing spirits [I Tim. 4:1].)

GOD IS LOVE

⁷Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God (speaks of agape love, of which the world knows nothing, and, in fact, cannot have to any degree); and every one who loves is born of God, and knows God. (This is the God kind of love, and cannot be faked. In fact, something will always happen to show what type of love the person possesses, whether its the God kind or that of the world.)

⁸He who loves not knows not God; for God is love. (As to His nature, God is love.)

⁹In this was manifested the Love of God toward us (if we truly have the Love of God in our hearts, we will, as well, manifest such love toward our fellowman), because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world (our Lord is the uniquely Begotten Son of God in the sense that He proceeds by eternal generation from God the Father, co-possessing eternally with God the Father and God the Spirit the essence of Deity), that we might live through Him. (It is only through Christ and what He did at the Cross that we can find life, and, as well, live through Him as He lives through us [Gal. 2:20].)

¹⁰Herein is love (the Greek says, herein is the love), not that we loved God, but that He loved us (the unconverted human race does not love God; nevertheless, He loved the human race), and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (Propitiation is the Sacrifice, which fully satisfied the demands of the broken Law and did so by our Lords Death on Calvarys Cross. His Death eternally satisfied the Righteousness of God.)

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (The Love of God is portrayed by the Cross more so than anything else. For us to understand His Love, we have to first understand the Cross.)

¹²No man has seen God at any time. (The idea is no one has ever yet seen Deity in all its essence.) If we love one another, God dwells in us (Saints having this agape love habitually for one another show that this love, which God is in His Nature, has accomplished its purpose in our lives), and His love is perfected in us. (The words His Love do not refer to our love for Him, or even to His Love for us, but to the Love that is peculiarly His own, which answers to His Nature.)

¹³Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us (dwells speaks of fellowship between two or more individuals; in this case, God and ourselves), because He has given us of His Spirit. (The Holy Spirit has been caused to take up His permanent Residence in us.)

¹⁴And we have seen and do testify (John was an eyewitness of Jesus Christ, both to Who He was and to What He did as well) that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (His Mission was to Redeem lost humanity, which He did at the Cross.)

¹⁵Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God (the confession John speaks of here is a lifetime confession, and represents the sustained attitude of the heart), God dwells in him, and he in God (proclaims the union of the Father in the Believer and the Believer in the Father, all made possible by what Christ did at the Cross).

¹⁶And we have known and believed the Love that God has to us. (The love God has shown to us is manifested in Him giving His Son to die on the Cross.) God is Love (which is proven by His Act of the giving of His Only Son); and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. (This is all made possible by the Cross, and only by the Cross.)

¹⁷Herein is our love made perfect (our love is brought to fruition, i.e., made complete, by a continued confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and what He did for us on the Cross), that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment (the Judgment addressed here is the coming Judgment Seat of Christ): because as He is, so are we in this world. (Christ is totally victorious, and due to the fact that we are in Him, we as well can be totally victorious in this world.)

¹⁸There is no fear in love (the type of fear spoken of here is not a godly fear or a filial reverence, but rather a slavish fear for a master or of a criminal before a Judge); but perfect love casts out fear (God has a Perfect Love for us, and if we have a perfect love for Him, which we surely can have, then we know He is going to sustain us, so theres nothing then to fear): because fear has torment. (It is guilt that makes men fear what is to come.) He who fears is not made perfect in love. (If we do not properly understand the Cross, then we are not made perfect in love.)

¹⁹We love Him, because He first loved us. (The first initiation of Love was on the part of God, and not us, as was necessary.)

²⁰If a man say, I love God, and hates his Brother, he is a liar (as James said, does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? [James 3:11]): for he who loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God Whom he has not seen? (If a professed Christian does not love one who bears the Divine Image, whom he sees and knows, how can he love God, Whose Image he bears, yet has not seen?)

²¹And this Commandment have we from Him (the Holy Spirit, through John, proclaims all of this as a Commandment), That he who loves God love his Brother also. (True love for God will always bring forth the correct action.)