The Lifestyle of a True Christian

Scripture: I John 2:18-19

C.I.: Testing the Bad & the Good

In I John, John is describing a true N.T. Christian. – THREE THEMES…!
Let us today see how to respond – to those who would destroy our souls – and to those who share our souls!

•  Testing the Spirits of Men, (I John 4:1-6) - ( Eph. 4:23 ), that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” )

A. Test #1: Are they from God? (v. 1)

1. ( v. 1 ), “Beloved, 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.”
a. God's apostles warn us about the fact that there are false teachers. – We need to be aware of this fact!
1) ( Matt. 24:11 ), “Many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.”
2) ( I Tim. 3:1-2 ), “The Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will fall away from the faith….”
3) ( II Pt. 2:1 ), “False prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will
secretly introduce destructive heresies.”
4) It is sad that someone would lie to us – but if it jeopardizes our souls – we need to be aware!
b. We see this “testing” demonstrated for us – when Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus, (cf. Rev. 2:2 ).

B. Test #2: Is their teaching from God? (vs. 2-3)

1. ( vs. 2-3 ), “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; - and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that
it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
a As we saw in our second lesson – antichrist = against Christ, (Gnostic/here, or otherwise).
1) Remember, John is writing to refute the claims of the “Docetic (to seem ) Gnostics.”
2) These taught, “All flesh is evil, therefore, Jesus could not have come in the flesh” ( Jn. 1:14 ).

b. Yet any teaching that is “Anti-” Jesus and His teachings is to be shunned, or rebuked!
1) ( Rom. 16:16-17 ), “Greet one another … keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary
to the teaching you have learned & turn away from them.” – If the teaching is not from God's word – fails the test!


C. Test #3: Are we overcoming them, (v. 4)

1. ( v. 4 ), “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the….”
a. As we saw last week, the Spirit of God helps us in our weaknesses, ( quote Rom. 8:26 ).
1) Today we have the Spirit-inspired Bible (which they did not) – they had the Spirit to teach them truth.
2) ( I Jn. 2:27 ), “… the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need foranyone
to teach you; - but as His anointing teaches you about all things.”
3) Today, we have the Spirit inspired word of God. – Therefore, we can “test all things” by God's word!

D. Test #4: Who do we listen to, (vs. 5-6)

1.. ( vs. 5-6 ), “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. – We are from God;
he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. – By this we know the spirit of truth & the spirit....”
a. “We” = apostles. – Following their teachings gives us fellowship with God, (cf. 1:3 ) – OR NOT!
b. People who continue to follow a false teaching – after it has been shown to be false – are not of God!

II. Testing Our “Love” for Others, (I John 4:7-21) (Are we loving others the way God desires?)

A. Test #1: Is our love from God, (vs. 7-8 )

1. ( vs. 7-8 ), “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. – The one
who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
a. Is our love from God? – Do all those things found in I Cor. 13 , characterize our lives?
b. Do people notice a “family resemblance” between us and our Father (i.e., “born of God” )? THEY SHOULD!!!

B. Test #2: Do we demonstrate God's sacrificial love, (vs. 9-11)
1. ( vs. 9-11 ), “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He love us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. –
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
a. Propitiation = Adequate sacrifice, ( cf. 2:2 ). – Can we see & accept this sacrifice for ourselves?
b. Then we must be willing to see and offer this same kind of love to others!!!


C. Test #3: Is our love empowered by God's Spirit, (vs. 12-13)
1. ( vs. 12-13 ), “No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
– By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
a. Part of our weaknesses ( cf. Rom. 8:26 ), may be an inability to love others as God desires, so we have the Spirit.
1) Though we cannot “behold” God, - we can see He is in us – because of the work that He does in us.
2) ( Jn. 3:8 ), “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or
where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
3) In the same way, we can see God's Spirit in someone, by the way that they love others.

D. Test #4: Is our “Talk & Walk” in agreement with God, (vs. 14-16)
1. ( vs. 15-16 ), “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him , and he in God. – God is love, and the one who
abides in love abides in God , and God abides in him.”
a. Talk is cheap! – We need to show the veracity of our words – by living them out in our lives, ( I Jn. 3:18 )!
1) Jesus once asked, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, ‘Arise, take up your pallet and walk'? – But
that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'… He said to the paralytic, ‘…'” ( Mk. 2:1-12 )
2) Our love for each other is only “true” – when our words & our actions are in agreement!!!


E. Test #5: Does our love give us confidence in the judgment, (vs. 17-18)
1. ( vs. 17-18 ), “By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we
in this world. – There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not
perfected in love.”
a. We have already seen that God is love, ( v. 8 ). – We are also called to love in this world; “…as He is, so also are we…!”
1) When we truly understand the “love of God,” – & demonstrate it in our lives – we have nothing to fear.
2) As we grow in our knowledge of God's love – we will no longer fear standing before Him in judgment!

F. Test #6: Do we truly love God and show it by loving others, (vs. 19-21)
1. ( vs. 19-21 ), “We love, because He first loved us. – If someone says, ‘I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who
does not love the brother he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. – And this is the commandment we have from Him, that
the one who loves God, should love his brother also.”
a. Many people say they love God – but their actions prove otherwise. -
1) So if we are going to “Love” God's way… - “Love = Doing what is in another person's best interest…!”

CONCLUSION: We harm ourselves spiritually in two ways: 1) Not testing what we hear (against Bible), 2) Not loving each other!
We help ourselves spiritually in two ways: 1) by living as the Bible teaches, 2) by loving as the Bible teaches!
“Just say the sinner's prayer & invite Jesus into your heart” - Quote Mark 16:16 “By this we know the spirit of truth and…”