Do Not Trust Every Spirit, 1 Jn. 4: 1-6

To follow the spirit of the world is to live and to die with the world.

In this post-modern, materialistic, and increasingly secularized world marked by relativistic and fluid skepticism, nothing seems concrete enough to become an object of real worship. Certainly not God. But in reality, the only thing worthy of worship is that far greater than oneself. Worship, then, is raising the mind to God. But when the highest thing that one’s mind is lifted to is the self; when the immediate desires of the self become the highest ideals and motivators of one’s life, ‘worship’ of anything other than the individual self is shouted down by the interior clamor of one’s own arbitrary, narcissistic claims of one’s presumed individual or group’s ‘rights.’

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As Christians living in this kind of an environment, where little is ‘sacred’, except maybe the illusory pleasures of immediate gratification, the message that John the Evangelist is giving us here in this passage takes on even more immediate meaning and importance. We are told to “test the spirits [of our times] to see whether they belong to God because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:11). The claims of these false prophets take many forms and they make themselves very attractive and beguiling. They are the perennial “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Mt. 7:15). John tells us that they are “the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but is already in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them” (vs 4-5).

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As Christians we are to be in the world (as leaven), but not of it. Yet, none of us are immune to the siren songs of these false prophets. That is why John is giving us this advice about discerning the differences between the teachings of the world and the teachings of Jesus Christ. “This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God” (vs. 2-3). What does this mean for us then? It means that we have to honestly, in light of the Gospel, look into our motivations, and our desires and ask ourselves: Who are we listening to, the spirits of the world, or the Spirit of Truth in Jesus Christ? It is easy to say that we acknowledge Jesus Christ, God who came to us in the flesh; it is entirely another to live our daily lives in accord with His teachings. We have to discern within ourselves: Am I willingly conforming my thoughts, my words, and my actions in accord with his teachings, or am I conforming them to the teachings of the world?

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The ability to discern the difference between the spirits of this world and the Spirit of God has infinite importance, not only to the well-being of our eternal souls, but to the greater possibility of living our lives properly in this world, that is, in accord with the will of God. Do we listen to and follow the teachings that Jesus gave us at such great cost? Or do we listen to and seek only the immediate gratification of our desires? Though weak, do we still try to listen to and stumble toward God with all of our will and might, depending faithfully on his love and His grace? Or do we habitually give ourselves to the noise of our self-concerns and the world’s false teachings and illusory promises of happiness in political power, wealth, or fame? Worse, do we follow false prophets who wrap their worldly illusions in the garments of sacred scripture?

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The teachings and promises of the prophets of the world are not the same as those of Jesus, no matter how much some of them may boisterously and publicly proclaim their allegiance to Jesus Christ. In fact, and in word and in deed, they are in complete opposition to the teachings of Christ. To give our allegiance to such as these is to be in danger of losing our soul. If, as John tells us, we listen to the Word of God, as opposed to the words of the world, we belong to God. Those who listen to the world belong to the world. “This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit” (v. 6).

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The Spirit of God calls each of us every day to discern which spirit we are going to listen to and give ourselves to. To follow the spirit of the world is to live and to die with the world. To follow the Spirit of God, listening to the Word of God in Jesus Christ and humbly acting in accord with that Spirit, is to live both now and forever in the presence of the One who is Love through and through. God’s love made its power known in Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. It is that power alone that saved, and that continues to save the world. As Christians, it is our vocation to listen to and live in accord with that Spirit of love in this world. This is how Jesus wants to draw the world away from the spirits of the world and back to him; through the example of our lives lived bravely and joyfully in accord with His Spirit. May His grace be upon us.

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