Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
Gracious God and Heavenly Father,
Our modern world is willing to believe all sorts of false prophets and teachings. Relativism, atheism, other religions, Santa Claus, tolerance of everything but the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers must be able to discern what is false by knowing what is true. If the teaching claims that Jesus is God in the flesh, it is from God, but whatever denies the humanity and the deity of Jesus is not from God. We praise you that Christ is in us and that he has overcome the world. We should not be surprised that those who are not in Christ will not listen to us and may even hate us. Our own government, aligning itself with the modern worldview that affirms homosexuality, wants to declare that sections of Leviticus and Romans are hateful. If laws pass claiming that the Bible is guilty of hate speech, we maysee the imprisonment of preachers in Canada for preaching the gospel, like in so many other places in the world. Lord, give us strength to stand up for what we know to be true, come what may.
For Christ’s sake. AMEN