2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
John writes in the same sense as the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: “[T]he spirits of prophets are subject to prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). Both apostles saw teaching and preaching to God’s people as a spiritual act. They are to teach on the Spirit’s behalf, energized by the Spirit and with divine spiritual authority. But spiritual authority does not rest on a person simply because he claims it or assumes it, or because he may be assertive, persuasive, or otherwise an eloquent communicator. He must really have the Spirit of God working in and through him. So, the question is this: how does the average Christian know which teachers are speaking by the Spirit of God and which are not? After all, there is no shortage of false teachers circulating among Christian groups, and more so now with the ubiquitous nature of the internet.
John’s answer is this: evaluate the teaching and lives of those who teach. While the Bereans checked out Paul’s teaching against the Old Testament (Acts 17:11), John gives us a more focused guideline: “What does the teacher or prophet believe about Jesus Christ, and how does this reflect in his teaching and his life.” So, testing spirits is equivalent to testing prophets or teachers.
Could someone superficially mouth the words, “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh”? Could someone not lie about his belief to maintain his position of prominence and influence as a Christian teacher? That may happen. Remember, John writes in black-and-white terms, leaving it up to the reader to work out the implications and applications of his teaching. But the fulcrum for determining true or false teaching rests in the identity of Jesus Christ.
Obviously, we must not be naïve by looking for a formulaically worded litmus test. But we can ask questions like: “Does this teacher’s confession ring true?” “Does the Spirit in me bear witness to his teaching about Jesus Christ?” (cp. Rom. 8:16). We might even ask, “How central is Jesus Christ in his teaching? Does the person of Jesus Christ weave through all his teaching?” All Christian teaching hinges on the incarnate centrality of Jesus Christ.
Anyone who teaches otherwise or whose life does not show the centrality of Jesus Christ is not teaching by the Spirit of God. In John’s black-and-white terms, that person is teaching in the spirit of the antichrist (cp. Gal. 1:8–9). Such a teacher is not from God and should be avoided and censured.
Lord, help me to discern false teaching so that You remain central in my life.
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