1 John 4

English Standard Version

Test the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.

Here in verse 6 John refers to “we” meaning that there are many that are born again in the spirit and come to the lost because God has sent them. This is done through those who have been wise enough as homo sapiens to allow the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to identify truth and error to speak for them.

Most of the lost were not raised up in Christian households where truth and error were brought to them by the love of God that dwells in the hearts of born again Christian. That was my experience and my witness that a family loved me where I was and drew me out of darkness and into the light. That was not my natural family.

Yesterday I said “Are we wise enough to understand how love is perfected with us?” The answer to that is simply if we see the love of God exists in others so that we may abide with them to learn from them how God made that possible.

That is the second part of 1 John 4:6 in listening to them. 

But will just listening do the trick?

Matthew 5:6

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

The hungry will listen, just be wise in what you feed them.

Genesis 4:7

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

What the name Homo sapiens means. The name we selected for ourselves means ‘wise human’. Homo is the Latin word for ‘human’ or ‘man’ and sapiens is derived from a Latin word that means ‘wise’ or ‘astute’. Source; Google Search

Rather than going all the way back to original sin let us take the issue of being human after the fall. 

Here is an aspect of being human that I am sure we can all relate to in our own lives, overlooking details.

What I have failed to see in all my studies is the simplest of terms, God gave us rule over sin. This is where the self-naming issue of homo sapien comes into play. We think of ourselves as wise.

We call ourselves human beings rather than homo sapien. We literally are being human without giving any thought to ruling over si,. until it is brought to our attention. Humans are capable of resisting temptation.

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Our humanity will likely cry out “But Jesus is God, I am but human!”

While true, it was His humanity that resisted sin and ruled over it, not His deity. 

We cannot go back to original sin and decide how to resist the serpent. We have to accept what God told Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” It is in the being that determines if we are wise in how we deal with sin. How will we ever answer for all that we have done in not ruling over sin in our lives wisely?

1 John 4:17

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

Are we wise enough to understand how love is perfected with us?

Are we wise humans or just being human?