Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the
world. By this you know the Spirit of
God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of
God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is not of God. And this is the
spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already
in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)
"Do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits" means that we shouldn't believe everything we hear just because
someone says it is a message inspired by God.
There are many ways to test teachers to see if their message is truly
from the Lord. One is to check to see if
their words match what God says in the Bible (1 John 2:22; 1 Cor. 12:3). Other tests include their commitment to the
body of believers (1 John 2:19), their life-style (1 John 3:23, 24), and the
fruit of their ministry (1 John 4:6). But
the most important test of all, says John, is what they believe about
Christ. Do they teach that Jesus is
fully God and fully man? Our world is
filled with voices claiming to speak for God.
Give them these tests to see if they are indeed speaking God's truth.
