Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

1 John 4:1-3

Over the last few years, trust in conventional institutions in our culture has been undermined and often with good reasons. People don’t trust the medical profession or the government and in some cases they no longer trust the church and that is where my biggest concern is as I write today.

Some church leaders have given people the opportunity to question, but there is also a trend toward questioning the foundations of the faith and there are some leaders out there who are actively sowing the seeds of doubt. More often than not, it begins with the question asked of Eve in the Garden, “Did God really say?”

In the passage above John declares that false teachers have been around since the first century and he provides a great clarifying question to answer. Are the teachers you listen to declaring that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? As in our day, many attempt to undermine the person of Jesus as the Son of God. It’s a theme we see in every false religion and so we would expect that anyone attempting to “deconstruct” their faith would follow a similar path.

How do we know the truth? John was present when Jesus said that the Spirit would guide His followers into Truth and he emphasizes that point in the verses below.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 4:4-6

John also recognized the spiritual aspect of both by the words used to describe “the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Follow hard after the truth.