Pages

Monday, January 5, 2009

How to pick your spirits


Beloved,
believe not every spirit,
but prove the spirits,
whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:
every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God:
and this is the spirit of the antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it cometh;
and now it is in the world already.
Ye are of God,
my little children,
and have overcome them:
because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
They are of the world:
therefore speak they as of the world,
and the world heareth them.
We are of God:
he that knoweth God heareth us;
he who is not of God heareth us not.
By this we know the spirit of truth,
and the spirit of error
1 John 4:1-6 RV


Today I continue with reflections on 1 John. I feel so lucky to be starting this at this time. I am aware that I will have very few opportunities to carry on about 1 John in sermons and so forth.

The reading to expands upon the previous reflection from this epistle, that of the antichrist, but with more detail, this time on more particlaur denial of Christ. At this point, John states
every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God:

Here, the particular reference to “in the flesh” is of great import. At the time of writing, Gnosticism was stating that Christ was only a spirit: he did not “become truly human” . These controversies have pretty much left us, but in 1 John’s time they were they greatest threat to the church. Nowadays I would say western civilisation is the greatest enemy. In fact the media are far more comfortable dealing with spirits, ghosts and the like, than they are with the life of Christ. A very subtle and telling sign of how far we have moved away from the faith as a society. As John tells us:
They are of the world:
therefore speak they as of the world,
and the world heareth them.

John goes on to state that any spirit who denies that Jesus is from God is the antichrist. Like the previous reflection, I believe this to be more of a popular movement than a particular person. John does not deny the existence of such spirits, he thinks they are dangerous. I too believe their existence, and have had experience of them. Once experiencing the “real deal” of Jesus, so to speak, it is very clear to me that they are erroneous.
We are of God:
he that knoweth God heareth us;
he who is not of God heareth us not.
By this we know the spirit of truth,
and the spirit of error.

I do believe that people who do deal with such stuff are those who will need, and more than likely, respond, to Jesus' calling.

No comments: