There are false teachers in the world, and unfortunately, there are people in the world who inflict damage upon others. However, this is no excuse for not following Christ and committing our lives to Christ in obedience and righteousness. R.A. Torrey wrote along these lines, asserting that the only question we will face before the judgment seat of heaven is what we did with Christ.
This is the thrust of verses 1 through 6 of 1 John chapter 4. We are exhorted and obligated to test every spirit to see if it is from God. First, false prophets have gone into the world. Second, given what John has taught on the imitation of Christ, avoiding sin, Christian perfection and abiding in Christ, we cannot achieve any of these by following after false prophets.
It is not simply best practice to test the spirits and avoid false teaching. John makes it an obligation. If we follow after false teachers and miss out on heaven, we have only ourselves to blame. Yes, the false teacher must answer before Christ, but we will also answer for why we chose to be sucked into falsehood.
In verses 2 and 3, John makes clear that we can distinguish false teachers by their denial of Christ. A righteous spirit confesses Christ, but a false teacher will deny Christ. John then equates such false teaching with the spirit of antichrist. This is similar to Revelation 3:15-16 where Christ spews out of His mouth those who are lukewarm. The concept there is that choosing to be lukewarm is the same as choosing against Christ. If we are not committed to Christ, then we are against Him. It is the spirit of antichrist.
In verse 4, John uses the past tense to help us set our minds straight. We “have overcome them.” That is, we have overcome the world, evil, Satan, death and false teachers. We already have what it takes to overcome because Christ has overcome, and we have the power of Christ working in us. We have overcome, and we are overcoming. Christ is greater, and when we abide in Him and He in us, we are overcomers. Christ has conquered sin and death and holds the keys to hell. He is greater than all that is in the world, including evil.
In verse 5, the false teacher is of the world and speaks as from the world. Thus, only those of the world will listen. While we are abiding in Christ, we are not of the world, so the message of the false teacher is not to be appealing to us. It is only appealing when we are of the world. If we are abiding in Christ, we will ignore the false teacher’s message because we have already overcome them.
Verses 1 through 4 are not so poignant as verse 5. Verse 5 ends up being rather sharp and direct. People follow after false teaching because the world still has a place in their hearts. Thus, they will listen to the false teacher. The attractions of the world are still alive and well in their hearts. The old self is not all that old and has not died. It is as if they are lukewarm toward Christ, and the world is competing and winning for their hearts.
Let us not succumb to false teaching if for no other reason than it is a signal that we are of the world. We know Christians by their lives, and we know lukewarm Christians by the degree to which they follow after false teaching.
Make no mistake, however, that false teachers will offer crafty messages claiming to be truth.
How do we avoid falling prey to false teachers? In verse 6, John writes that we know God and listen to truth. A very simple method of avoiding false teaching is to ask that the Lord help us to see what is false and what is truth. I recall some years ago reading a book given to a church small group to study. Although there were some things which did not seem right, the Lord impressed upon me the desire to investigate the book further. Once I started obeying the Lord, I discovered just how false the book was and literally threw it in the garbage.
We must be quick to dispose of false teaching, and we must also be in tune with the Lord to avoid false teaching. We do this first by abiding in Christ and second by seeking out correct teaching and being quick to refuse false teaching. Where we end up in trouble is by excusing false teaching as not being that bad, or claiming that just this once will be fine. Once we make such excuses, we have begun to squelch the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We have set up competition with Christ in our hearts. If anyone does not speak the light of righteousness, they do not have the light of God in them.
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