Today’s Reading, 1 John 1-5
Focal Scripture: 1 John 4:1 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Tests are a part of life. Especially, if you are in education. The reason tests are given is to make sure that you understand and know the content you have learned. As a best practice we try to test students every 7-10 learning days. These tests are given on specific content and the students are given direct instruction, remediation, learning targets, and personal feedback. This is done to saturate the students in the content and make them knowledgeable not just proficient.
In today’s reading John is explaining how believers should live and how they should test people who claim to speak truth. The gospel message is known and it is very straightforward. Jesus lived a perfect life and died for sinners. Salvation is found in knowing Jesus as savior. He is the only one who can redeem sins and grant eternal life. However, there are teachers who are false prophets. These false prophets sound good. They can even become popular. Unfortunately, these false prophets bring death.
So how can one fight against false prophets. How can one test the spirits? Here are a few ways it can happen in your setting.
- Does the message focus on Jesus? I am not talking about an occasional mention. If Jesus is not the center of the message, the message is false.
- Who is the heroine of the story being told? Is it Jesus or someone else.
- Does the speaker say one thing and act another way publicly?
- Does the speaker call people to repentance?
This list is not exhaustive but knowing what the fundamentals of biblical truth are should give us some insight into false prophets in our lives and our churches.
I want to encourage you that it is ok to be critical of people who preach and teach. The goal is not to be mean in your critique but to tests the spirit of the message. When you do this you will get some push back from people. They will call you critical or judgmental. That is not correct, you are being biblical.
Every speaker I hear I judge them by a few standards and they are the following:
- Did they read the scriptures?
- Did they explain the context of the scripture?
- Did they make Jesus the focus of the scriptures?
- What was discussed more in the sermon the Bible or personal stories?
I encourage you to have high standards because it will allow you to see false prophets. They are everywhere and must be exposed.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 2 – 3 John, & Jude
