Test of the Spirits

The Apostle John gives an urgent warning to the Christians he has pastored and to us. Many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world but we must not gullibly believe them but we must test them. The purpose of the test is to determine if they are from God or the spirit of antichrist. He gives two major theological test and some related social test. 

In this episode of Bible Insights, Wayne Conrad teaches on “Testing the Spirits” from 1 John 4:1–6. He explains that Christians live in an age of many persuasive voices—religious, cultural, and spiritual—and therefore must not be gullible nor cynical, but discerning. John’s command is clear: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

The reason for testing is that many false prophets have gone out into the world. False teaching is not rare, and it often sounds spiritual and convincing. Discernment, however, is not suspicion; it is love guarding the truth.

Conrad highlights several key tests drawn from the text:

1. The Christological Test
The primary test concerns the identity of Jesus Christ. True teaching confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh—fully God and fully man. Any teaching that denies or distorts Christ’s incarnation, deity, humanity, or saving work reflects the spirit of the Antichrist. Redefining Jesus while using religious language is a mark of error.

2. The Apostolic Test
True doctrine aligns with the apostolic witness preserved in Scripture. Those who know God listen to the apostles’ teaching; those shaped by the world reject it. Scripture—Old and New Testaments together—is the authoritative standard for testing all spiritual claims.

3. The Reception Test
The world often embraces false teaching and resists biblical truth. Popularity is not evidence of divine approval. Fidelity to apostolic truth, not success or charisma, is the true measure.

4. The Goal and Fruit Test
The Spirit of truth exalts Christ, produces worship of God, nurtures godliness, and brings assurance through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The spirit of error promotes self-centered independence, false ideas, and deception—even if it appears impressive or spectacular.

The episode concludes by urging believers to:

• Examine doctrine carefully.
• Compare all teaching with Scripture.
• Evaluate whether a message reflects worldly thinking or biblical truth.

The ultimate focus must remain on Jesus Christ—the incarnate Son of God and Savior. By grounding themselves in Scripture and holding firmly to the true confession of Christ, believers can walk in truth and avoid deception.

Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad
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Transcript

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Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad. God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. Today's topic testing the spirits. Beloved, we live in an age of endless voices. We are hearing voices from every angle. Podcasters, preachers, teachers, books, social media, spiritual influencers, political prophets, cultural commentators, all speak with confidence and conviction. And made all those voices, many claim divine insight, many claim truth, and many claim to speak in the name of love, in the name of justice, or even in the name of God, or I dare say it, in the name of Jesus. John writes to a church not unlike the churches of our own day and time and climate is a church that's surrounded by persuasive teachers, by religious language, and by spiritual claims. And so he opens up his letter with a command that is urgent, it was urgent then, it is urgent now. Here are his words. He does not say reject everything. He does not say accept everything. Those are two extremes. What he says is test, test everything. You see, Christian faith is not gullible. Christians therefore should not be gullible. To have love and love for people does not mean a lack of discernment. We have to have discernment. And true spirituality is not then the absence of teaching or the absence of doctrine, but fidelity to the truth. There are those who say, well, doctrine divides. No doctrine actually unites, it unites people around a particular truth or particular truths or a particular person. And in the Christian faith, doctrine is the doctrine of Christ and that unites us to Christ, and a common faith unites us to one another. But holding this faith, we must use discernment. John addresses the church tenderly. He calls him beloved. These are people that are dear to his heart. It's people that he knows because he had been pastor in Ephesus. But remember that in the first century, the churches didn't have the huge church buildings or even small church buildings like we have in America. They met in homes or in rented spaces, sometimes maybe in public spaces. They didn't own buildings, not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but they met in various locations, and one place might not be able to hold them all. So he's writing to all of them, and he writes dully beloved. Now, discernment is not the same as suspicion. When the teacher preaches or something, we shouldn't immediately be suspicious. But we must use discernment like the Thessalonians did. Paul came and he preached the gospel, he preached the word of God, and they were very diligent students of the word. These are Jews who now come to faith in Christ. And what they did was to check out from the Old Testament references with the story that Paul was telling them about Christ. And yes, they could see in their scriptures what he had been saying that Jesus was and what he had done. But we are called for discernment. That was true then and it is true now. It's very important that we use discernment in testing spiritual or religious teaching. So, in a world filled with diverse religious claims and with spiritual phenomena, the New Testament offers a vital exhortation. Do not believe every spirit. Now, while genuine spirits and divine utterances exist in accordance with God's word, not everything presented in the name of God originates from Him. So as believers, we're called to be discerning rather than gullible. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they're from God. Now why? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This command implies a fundamental reality. If we say we have false prophets, that means what? We have true prophets. And so John contrasts the spirit of truth with the spirit of error. And to distinguish between them, we're given two primary theological tests, but also tests that deals with who is listening. So let's look at about five different things that the text that 1 John chapter 4, 1 through 6 says to us. Let me read that text to you. I'm reading from the New Christian Standard Bible. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they're from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you've heard is coming, and even now it is already in the world. Now this was such a concern to John that in his second letter he repeats basically the same truth. And I'm reading from 2 John 7 and 9. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. They do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch out, watch yourselves so you don't lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching, but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. Notice that he is giving two primary tests. The test of Christology based on apostolic truth. So in a way, we could say that's one huge test, or we can break it down into various categories. So let's take a closer look then at these particular verses. Discernment, as I said, is not suspicion, it's love guarding the truth. And the reason for testing is made very clear by the apostle. For many false prophets have gone into the world. But notice that the prophet's speaking is motivated by a spirit. False teaching, you see, is not rare, is not on the fringe, it's not always obvious. And John says it has gone out into the world, meaning that in his day and in everyday sense, it is active and mobile, it's persuasive and public. Notice that in some of the statements of Jesus in the Gospels that John echoes here, many false prophets. He doesn't say many false ideas, but ideas are important, and they false prophets can have wrong ideas, but they are people. They are people who are speaking, who are teaching, and they claim authority and they speak spiritually. John says they speak by a spirit. It may be the spirit of God, if they're true prophets and true teachers of the word, or it can be a spirit of the Antichrist, one not for Christ. Every teaching then carries a spirit behind it. A spirit that exalts God or seeks to replace him with something else. A spirit that submits to Christ as Lord or seeks to reshape him into a human figure that we like, that we relate to. A spirit that leads to truth or a spirit that leads away from truth and leads into error. So John calls a church to discern, not based on feelings, not based on popularity, not based on sincerity. You can be sincerely wrong, but you must, it must be based on truth. First of all, this objective truth, the objective historical truth of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the truth that's conveyed to us in the Word of the Living God. So the first test is a Christological test. What do you say about Jesus? What do they say about Jesus? So John gives us here a very clear test. It's simple, it's direct, it's uncompromising. Every spirit, and you can say therefore, every true teacher or every true prophet that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Now in John's day, you see, the issue was not atheism. It wasn't a denial of God. In fact, the Christians were accused of being the atheists because they didn't worship a multitude of gods with the use of images and idols. But the issue in John's day, circulating among those who claimed any affinity to Christianity, was a false Christology. That means a false teaching of the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the Messiah. Many teachers claim spiritual insight while denying that the eternal Son of God truly became flesh. Now we call him the eternal Son of God, which means that he existed before he was born. He was the word that was with God in the beginning, and who was God. This is the one who came in the flesh. He is the Son in relationship to the eternal Father. The eternal Father and the eternal Son and the Eternal Spirit, the one true and living God. For the eternal Son of God truly became flesh. That is the claim of the Christian religion. Some said then, and some say now, that Jesus only appeared to be human, that he was maybe only God, but not human. That's not true. He must be both God and human in order to be the Savior. Others said that the Christ, the Messiah, the Spirit, came upon the man Jesus temporarily, usually at the point of his baptism in the Jordan by John, and then left him before he went to the cross. But John draws a very firm line here in the Word. Jesus Christ is one person. He's not two people, he's one person, but he has two natures, both human from the Virgin Mary, and divine, deity that he has had from eternity. He has come. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. 1 John, I mean chapter John 1, 14. He has come in the flesh. He's not an illusion. He's truly human and he experiences human life just like we experience it. He got hungry and thirsty. He experienced pain, temptations, etc. To deny this is not a minor theological error. It's a major, major false idea, false teaching. John calls it the spirit of the Antichrist. So the Antichrist is not merely opposed Jesus openly. He's not one who just claims to be a replacement of Christ. He's also one who redefines Christ. So the Antichrist, he keeps religious language about Jesus while emptying the gospel of its power because it diminishes Christ's deity. It denies his true humanity. It separates Jesus from the saving work of the Son of God and replaces the biblical Christ with a moral example, a political symbol, a mystical guide, or a demagod. But this spirit is not from God. The church does not test by spirits by charisma. The speaker may be very nice looking, and he may have a wonderful delivery, but that does not mean he is of God. The church does not test spirits by success. He may have thousands or millions of followers. We do not test spirits by any of these things. We test it by relevance. We test it by its conformity to the confession of the true Christ, which is found and affirmed in the Word of God. You know, in the first centuries of the Christian church, there was quite a stir trying to determine who is Jesus Christ, exactly what is the nature of Jesus Christ. And there came a very famous, popular teacher. His name was Arius, and he taught a false doctrine about Jesus Christ. And because of this, the church in its leadership formed together a meeting and a conference, and examining the word of God, they came up with a confession of the true Christ that we have expressed in a creedal form, historical creed form, in what we today call the Nicene Creed. Let me read the relevant portions to you. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made, and for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven. He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again according to the scriptures, he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. And we also believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father through the Son, and with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified. This is the biblical truth about who Jesus Christ is. So the theological test of what is true about Christ is we must make the positive confession. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. This means acknowledging Jesus as the incarnate Lord of glory, fully God, fully man. And the negative, the negative denial is any teaching that denies the true identity or the saving work of Jesus is the spirit of the Antichrist. It is the spirit of era. True spiritual teaching will always align with the revealed word of God and with the revelation that the word became flesh. It does not and cannot view Jesus as a mere man or a phantom or simply a prophet. They must view Jesus as the eternal God who entered human flesh as a human being to save us. The God man, Jesus Christ, is the Savior. This is all based on apostolic truth. You see, that is one of the tests that John also raises. Listen to him. He says, What you are from God, little children, you are from God, little children, and you've conquered them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who's in the world. They are from the world, therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and anyone who knows God listens to us. Anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. Okay? That is, we must listen to the apostolic truth. The apostolic truth is that truth which is conveyed for us in the Word of God, in the Holy Scriptures, comparing the Old and the New Testament. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. We find pictures and hints of Christ and prophecies about his coming in the old, and in the new, Christ is fully revealed. And the Scriptures are the apostolic witness. They and their primary associates are the ones who compose the sacred writings. And so we must listen to the apostolic truth. You see, people often will listen to the world. That's their primary reference frame. But the test of reception that John gives us is how does the world respond to the message that we preach? How does the world respond to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the spirit of truth, this spirit that's conveyed in the apostolic witness of the scriptures and proclaimed in Christian Orthodoxy is often rejected or misunderstood by those who are worldly minded. It just doesn't fit their category, it doesn't fit their lifestyle. Whereas the spirit of era is listened to and applauded by the world, is often popular. And people follow it because so many people are believing it. But do not be surprised that when the truth is proclaimed, that it is unpopular and it is prone to be twisted. Popularity is not the sign of God's approval. Fidelity to the apostolic teaching, that is the true test. That's the test of approval. What's the goal of the teaching? What is the goal? Is it for deep assurance or is it deception? You see, the test of internal effect. We have the test of focus. What is the goal? The spirit of truth, the primary focus is on who Jesus is and to nurture godliness and reveal the glory of Christ to the glory of God the Father. The Spirit of error, its goal, its focus is on promoting self-confident independence of God's truth or following after false gods and false ideas. True teaching about Jesus Christ in the gospel leads to the worship of God, but false teaching leads us to worship ourselves and false idols. Rather, they are built as structures that we bow down to or simply the idols of our mind. We have the test of internal effect. What is the effect of this goal when it's reached? The spirit of truth, the effect is that it provides a deep assurance through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Whereas in the spirit of error, deceives the gullible through spectacular phenomena or false myths, or simply by the sly of hands, or by popular teaching that appeals to the self. Look for the fruit of peace and assurance, not for the flash signs of signs and wonders or popularity. We must discern truth from error, and to do so we must look at the doctrine of Christ. And we must do so in light of the supreme authority, which is the apostolic word, the New Testament. We can see how the world is Reaction because when the world receives the word so readily, that is a big danger sign that it's not the proclamation of the truth. Because those who are outside of God and who do not know Jesus Christ do not delight in the truth about Jesus Christ. They want to reject you. It takes the movement of the Spirit of God to enlighten people about who Jesus Christ really is. Our primary focus must be up on Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of the Living God. Let us seek to discern truth from era by looking to the Word of God. We must look to Christ Himself into His cross for the salvation of our souls and for the conforming of us to the image of God that's revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. So take away these things about testing of the Spirit. Examine the doctrine. Does the teaching accurately represent Jesus as the sovereign King and God incarnate? Consult the scriptures. Does the message align with the authoritative word given to the apostles, comparing Scripture with Scripture? Evaluate the source. Is his message speaking the language of the world or is it speaking the truth of God? By applying these tests, we can walk in the light of God's truth, and we can avoid the deceptions of the spirit of error. May the Holy Spirit grant us the wisdom to walk in truth and the courage to reject deception. Thank you for listening today. Be sure to check your own heart of the teachings you hear against the things that I've shared with you today. Stay grounded in the Word of God. Stay close to the heart of Jesus. This has been Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights. If this message has been a blessing to you, please leave a comment.