So to confess Jesus verbally is not enough. It is a matter of doctrine. The overall context of the entire epistle reveals that. John is dealing with the infiltration of false doctrine. Do not tell me that you confess Jesus while your doctrine denies His Gospel. Mormons profess Jesus Christ but their doctrine reveals that they are in opposition to Him. Going back to Matthew Henry regarding these verses:
Christians who are well acquainted with the Scriptures, may, in humble dependence on Divine teaching, discern those who set forth doctrines according to the apostles, and those who contradict them.
The spirit that is antichrist is already in the world. It is at work every day in scattering people away from the Lord. Away from salvation. While verse one laid the groundwork, verses 2-3 give us specific tools to understand true discernment. What is the key? As Matthew Henry points out it is our humble dependence upon Divine teaching. That is the teaching that comes from God, or doctrine. The new wave of teachings depend upon our own personal experience. It emphasizes how we feel and then strip mines the Bible to try and find verses that can prop those feelings up. That is where the humble dependence comes in. Humility when approaching Scripture means we defer our position to the authority of Scripture. We do not question it. We do not make it culturally relevant. We do not use it to justify our carnality but rather to expose it. When we approach the Divine teachings of doctrine as laid out in Holy Scripture than we can tell which doctrines are genuinely set forth by the Apostles and which contradict them. By doing so we can assure ourselves to be led by God instead of the inherent wickedness in the hearts of men. Our key verses conclude:
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1John 4: 4-6 (ESV)
We often here motivational pastors use verse three as a catch-all for transferring the power of God unto man. Ironically this verse is really here to remind us that the greater power within us can overcome the very false teacher who is abusing this verse! Remember, God is explaining the war that rages in our lives between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. The Bible makes it clear that friendship with the world makes us an enemy of God. Yet what is the entire premise of the seeker-friendly, purpose driven movements if not to establish friendship with the world? To make the church that is supposed to be separate more relevant to the carnality it seeks to save men from? We are from God and they are not. Whoever knows God listens to true doctrine. They do not dismiss it. They do not call it legalism or religious. They do not mock and marginalize it. Here are Matthew Henry's final thoughts on these verses:
The true doctrine as to the Saviour's person, as leading men from the world to God, is a mark of the spirit of truth in opposition to the spirit of error. The more pure and holy any doctrine is, the more likely to be of God; nor can we by any other rules try the spirits whether they are of God or not. And what wonder is it, that people of a worldly spirit should cleave to those who are like themselves, and suit their schemes and discourses to their corrupt taste?
True doctrine represents the person of our Savior and anything contrary to it represents the spirit of antichrist. The church has been deceiving itself to consider the antichrist only in terms of the person who will rise to prominence in the end times. In doing so, we do not even seek to discern the antichrist spirit that has already infiltrated the church today. The great apostasy is well underway because the spirit of antichrist operates the majority of churches and few seek to discern. Few seek to stand in the gap. Few seek to blow the trumpet and warn the body. Those that do are minimized by being accused of having a religious spirit. If that is to say a doctrinal spirit I will wear that as a badge of honor. Because as God has laid out for us in these verses beloved there are only two choices just as there are only two paths. There is the Spirit of Truth, based upon a humble dependence on the Word of God and the spirit of error based upon the antichrist spirit. They are at war constantly over the souls of men. It is a war we ignore at our own peril because if lost, the consequences we will pay for throughout eternity.
Reverend Anthony Wade - November 1, 2015
