1 John 4:1-6
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
There’s been a fair amount of talk in recent weeks about false prophets. With several high profile prophets having given wrong prophecies relating to President Trump winning a second term in office, the Internet did what it tends to do and got outraged. Some of these prophets recanted what they had said, admitted they got it wrong and apologized. Even so, keyboard warriors in the comments labelled them as “false prophets.” But what is a false prophet and how do we spot them?
John is here with a bit of an answer for us. If they do not acknowledge that Jesus came in a real body (and by extension that His death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice for our sins) then they are a false prophet; or rather, they do not speak from the Spirit of God. That sounds a bit simple though, doesn’t it? Surely someone could just say the right things about Jesus and then make up whatever they want and call it prophecy!
It’s important to remember that John is addressing a church which has experienced some serious false teaching. Throughout this letter, John has been unpicking this heresy which taught – among other things – that Jesus didn’t really come in a human body. It seems many had been led astray by this group, and even though they had been removed from the church they still held some influence. John identifies these false teachers with the spirit of the Antichrist, whose goal is to deceive people and lead them away from the truth about Jesus. We need to be aware of people like that, but not frightened because John reassures us that “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”
So what about these present-day prophets who made wrong prophecies? Applying John’s teaching, it seems clear that a mistake does not a false prophet make. We must be wary of people who seek to deceive and draw us away from the truth about Jesus. We must also be wise in weighing up prophetic words, regardless of how good a record or how big a platform the prophet might have. We must be quick to forgive and slow to write off those who make mistakes, because every human being is prone to them. Above all, we must all take responsibility personally for how we receive any teaching that is given to us. We must weigh it carefully next to Scripture, and apply what is of God so that we become more like Jesus today than we were yesterday.
