Smoodock's Blog

John continues to contrast believers and the unbelievers in chapter four of his epistle. But, I wonder how seriously John is taken by modern believers. Most Christians today seem to be content to simply be the audience for whoever may be on stage or behind the lectern. In an age of TV evangelism and mega churches the believer is ripe for deception, because so many are seated and ready to hear whatever is said by him who stands behind the lectern or parades himself on the stage. No doubt, it was much more difficult to deceive believers in the various provinces of the Roman Empire during the first century AD. How so? Because, it would have been more difficult for a deceiver in the first century to travel throughout those provinces and deceive all the house churches therein together with those large rented rooms (Acts 19:9), wherever the disciples of Christ could find them.

It is far easier for a deceiver today, who stands behind a lectern. TV outreaches and mega-churches provide far superior numbers of folks, who are both willing and, perhaps, ignorant of the danger of a peddler of attractive lies for a fee. Modern believers seem to love to have the sense of the words in their Bibles interpreted for them, because it is simply too laborious for folks to plow the fields of the word of God for themselves!

John warns his readers in John 4:1 to try the spirits and don’t simply believe every one that comes along. The Greek word for try is dokimazō (G1381). Literally, the word means to test, prove or scrutinize. The sense is to do this in order to approve the end product (such as one would do precious metals), but the process also reveals that which is unworthy of belief. In the context of John’s letter the source of a doctrine is the subject of interest. Is it the word of God or the words of men (John 5:39-43).

John uses the word spirit in John 4:1, and many folks today want to believe that he refers to great fallen spiritual entities (fallen angels), but this isn’t so. Many want to believe there is a spirit behind every tree, and the believer is in a constant battle throughout the week to keep from coming under the influence of these evil spirits. Nevertheless, the truth is far simpler than this, far less mythical and far less superstitious. However, in order to understand that such mythical and superstitious doctrines are foolishness, one needs to look into the word of God, because the word of God never speaks of armies of demons (spirit beings) attacking human beings in an effort to influence their thoughts and behavior.

John uses the word spirit (pneuma – G4151) to refer to the minds of men and the mind of God. The word is used of the Lord’s Spirit (2Corinthians 3:18), and for the spirit in man that gives him the ability to understand his own affairs (1Corinthians 2:11). In Paul’s context, and, therefore, John’s as well, the word seems to point to the ability of the mind. There is the mind of man that understands the things of men, and there is the mind of Christ, which understands the things of God (1Corinthians 2:16).

According to John and in the context of his epistle, the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of the many false prophets, who have gone out into the world. They speak out of the mind of the natural man, and the natural man will not believe what comes from the Spirit (mind) of God. Spiritual matters seem foolish to him, because he is unable to understand them, for they are spiritually discerned (1Corinthians 2:14). How so? The Holy Spirit (i.e. the mind of Christ – 1Corinthians 2:15; Colossians 1:27) teaches the spiritual man by comparing spiritual things with spiritual things (e.g. comparing one verse in Scripture with other verses – see 1Corinthians 1:13). This is how we are able to understand the word of God, and this is how we are able to try the spirits.

from Google Images