Q
Can you explain the biblical test in 1 John 4:1?
A
1 John 4:1, which
you call the biblical test, is one of a series of statements about Christ
in this epistle that are apparently directed against the heresy called
Gnosticism, specifically one branch of it called Cerinthianism. Cerinthus
held that Jesus was only a man on whom the eternal Christ descended and
stayed for part of His life. So John throughout his epistle is showing
that Jesus the man who lived in the flesh was also the eternal Christ who
was the Son of God. In addition, he points out that true believers will
recognize this.
In the first few verses he points out that he has seen, heard, and handled
this One. In 2:22 John asks, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus
is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” In
4:15 is the statement, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,
God abides in him, and he in God.” In 5:5 he asks the question, “Who is
he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of
God?” But the passage you are wondering about is the one in which he goes
into the most detail.
The test in this passage (there are other tests in Scripture) is a test
of doctrine relating to the identity of Christ. 4:1 states the necessity
of the test: there are false prophets in the world and inspiring spirits
behind them and so every spirit needs to be tested to see whether it is
of God. The way to do this is to test the doctrine the spirits teach, and
v. 2 tells us how to know them. The NET Bible translates v. 2b this way: “every spirit that confesses Jesus as the
Christ who has come in the flesh is from God” (https://net.bible.org/#!bible/1+John+4). It is as good or better than any other translation grammatically
and fits better with John’s opposition to the Cerinthians.
So 4:2 is the content of the biblical test in 1 John 4:1 (it is also
stated negatively in 4:3). We can reject any teaching, and the prophet
and spirit behind it, if it claims Jesus was not God incarnate, Immanuel,
fully God and fully man. There are those today who do this in one form
or the other—for instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. And we rightly
reject them as not Christian but antichristian.
But, and this is important, this test in 1 John 4:1-3 is not the only
biblical test. In 1 Cor. 3:13 we are told that each one’s work will be
tested by fire in the future. And in the book of First Thessalonians we are told to test all
things and hold on to what is good. That statement leads us to the many
times in Scripture we are admonished in one way or another about sound
doctrine. Eph. 4:14; 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 4:3; and Jude 3 are just a few.
So actually we can test spirits and teachings on any point of doctrine.
We simply need to be careful that we only separate from people or movements on the basis of doctrine,
not interpretation and that we only separate on the basis of doctrine that
is clear.