Sound Doctrine about Jesus - Part 2
Hold on to the Truth
1 John 4v4-6
16th June 2023
In verses 1-3, John wrote about the need to resist evil spirits and false prophets. I think we can also apply his words to false teachers. He now writes:
1 John 4v4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who
is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
The churches under John's care had split. Tragically, some of the members had come to believe falsehoods about God and about man. They'd listened to false teachers and false prophets. They'd left their churches and set up false churches that were working against Jesus, that were antichrist (verse 3). Beware false teaching, false doctrine. Doctrine matters.
John writes to the true Christians in his care. They may not have been as eloquent as the false Christians, or as educated, but they had overcome the false Christians and the evil spirits. This victory over false teachers is really victory over false doctrine.
These true Christians had held on to the truth about Jesus, about God and about themselves. Despite the cleverness, the charm, the persuasive arguments, of the false teachers, despite the pressure from the surrounding society, they continued to believe, and to base their lives on, the Gospel of Christ as taught in the New Testament.
We have the same challenge. British society would prefer us not to believe that Jesus is the only way to God, that His sacrifice on the cross is the only way to obtain forgiveness of sins, that Biblical morality is eternal, that God rules. Some false teachers want to water down the Gospel, to cast doubt on Jesus's atoning sacrifice, to encourage Christians to join so-called "inter-faith services" and pray to false gods, to deny Biblical standards of morality, to deny the reality of heaven and hell, to cast doubt on the virgin birth or the resurrection.
When we refuse to turn away from believing the Bible and living it out, we're victorious over false religion, false teaching, and false gods. This is the victory that matters. Our faithfulness to Jesus and to His holy word means infinitely more than political, social or financial power. We are his chosen people, hand-picked, ring-fenced, dedicated to Him, whatever anybody else thinks or wants, whatever the cost. Faithfulness to God is the ultimate Christian victory.
Dear Christian, you're not victorious because you're so very clever, or good, but because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. As we saw in chapter 3 verse 24, Jesus Christ lives in us. He lives in us by His Holy Spirit, and He - God - is infinitely greater than Satan. As children say, "My Dad's bigger than their dad". Our Heavenly Father is infinitely more powerful than Satan, the Father of lies.
1 John 4v5
They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world,
and the world listens to them.
As we've seen before in our studies of this letter, there are two kingdoms in the universe, and only two. One is the kingdom of God, sometimes called "the kingdom of heaven", or "the kingdom of Christ", or "the kingdom of light", or simply "the kingdom". The other is the kingdom of darkness. As we've also seen, when John says "the world" he means the system, controlled by the kingdom of darkness, which is set against God and seeks to undermine the Gospel of Christ.
Every Christian, no matter how flawed, selfish and dirty, is a citizen of the kingdom of God. Every non-Christian, no matter how kind, generous, thoughtful, inoffensive or religious, is a subject of the kingdom of darkness. Everybody in what John calls "the world" is opposed to God, although most of them don't realise it or intend it.
False teachers, who don't believe the Gospel of Christ, speak from the viewpoint of the world. Of course they do. Without the Holy Spirit, they can't understand the things of God. Many of them mean well, but what they teach is false.
There is an idea, which intellectuals and would-be intellectuals call "postmodernism", which propounds the ridiculous notion that what is true for one person may be untrue for another. That is, that what is true depends on an individual person's viewpoint, that there is no objective truth, only subjective truth. Satan loves this doctrine. It means we can believe whatever we like, and no-one can criticise us for it. I could spend some time demonstrating why this idea is preposterous, but I'm sure you already know it is. Postmodernism is a lie, and it's profoundly harmful, because it implies that Christianity can be "true for me" and Islam or Buddhism or Atheism can be "true for you". This is rubbish.
No matter what anybody thinks, Jesus is God. He is the second Person of the Holy Trinity. He is the Messiah - God's Anointed One. Any religion which denies this is a false religion, and worships a false God. Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
1 John 4v6
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from
God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and
the spirit of falsehood.
When he says "we" here, John means the original apostles, of whom he was one. He makes an extraordinary statement which is nonetheless true. The 12 apostles (minus Judas and plus Paul) were from God - saved, envisioned, called, and sent by God to spread the true Gospel. Anybody who is truly born again, any real Christian, will listen to the 12 apostles. For us, that means every true Christian will study and believe the New Testament, which was inspired by God and written down by them and their close associates. Anybody who is not truly born again will not believe the New Testament. They might study it but from a viewpoint of scepticism rather than faith.
So here is John's last test of the spirits that motivate people, and therefore of the value of those people's contribution: Anybody who casts doubt on the New Testament, or who deliberately speaks contrary to the New Testament, speaks with the spirit of falsehood.
Be careful whom you listen to.