The chapter gives advice on the discernment of spirits. It provides a simple a test - ask the spirit if Jesus Christ came from God in the flesh. A spirit that denies it is not from God, whereas a spirit that acknowledges it is from God.
A spirit that denies is the "Antichrist". Here, we have a definition of the loaded term.
Verses 4-6 provide another test to determine truth from falsehood. This is to acknowledge the authority of the Apostles. For us in the modern setting, it would be to recognize their written record that they left behind, in other words, the New Testament.
One thing that comes to mind in this is that even the Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet. Thus, they believe Jesus came from God. They do not however believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Can this be reconciled with I John 4? After all, the spirit test in I John 4 makes no mention of whether Jesus was the Son of God, but rather that Jesus was sent by God.
I think this perspective would remove the test from the context. For starters, a few verses down (v. 9) shows the author believes that Jesus was the Son of God and that God sent him. Plus, much of what the apostles stated elsewhere is that Jesus was the Son of God.
Based on this, we could read into the spirit test that not only Jesus was from God, but that Jesus was God's son.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment