(REFLECTIONS ON 1 John 4:1-6 )

From the early church to today, there have always been competing philosophies, religious thought, theologies regarding God, how to reach God, and regarding the nature of Jesus. Was Jesus just a man that was adopted as the Son of God and given His abilities through the Holy Spirit from God, or was Jesus a spirit, and not truly a man, but the manifestation in spirit form of God on earth?

What is the role of Jesus in our faith, and how does Jesus get us into a relationship with God? All these questions and debates have pulled at the church, believers, and served as a line in the sand that splits, divides, and leads astray.

John therefore in his concern over the church, reminds believers to test the spirits because our faith is a faith that acknowledge Jesus the man, but also Jesus the Christ, that is the Messiah, the Savior, born of Mary, but also from God. John writes,

2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Jesus is not just Jesus the man, but also is the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is also not just Christ, not just a spirit, but 100% flesh, just like we are 100% flesh. Jesus suffered, just like we suffer, and His death on the cross was a real physical death, with all the pains and anguish associated with it.

However, being 100% flesh, doesn’t mean that the nature of God in Jesus was somehow injected into the man, so that He could be called Son of God. Rather, as John already established in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Ref. John 1:1).

The birth of Jesus thus was the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us (Ref. John 1:14). That is why we believe that Jesus being 100% flesh, is also 100% the Christ, the Messiah, Son of God, and God Himself.

John then connects us, the church, to Jesus, and to God, writing,

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

We are also from God, being born not by flesh, but by the Spirit, being spiritually born into the family of God. We are from God, just as Jesus was from God, and so we are God’s sons and daughters.

Many, even to this day try to separate Jesus from Christ, Christ from God, and in turn us from God. They may acknowledge Jesus, read Scripture, and everything perhaps sounds the same as the message we preach, but if we listen to the nuances, perhaps we will find that they only believe in Jesus, and not in Christ, or in Christ, but not in Jesus.

We believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, from God, and is God, and we believe that through Jesus Christ we join into this fellowship. May we preach a message and live a faith knowing that Jesus is the Christ, the Word become flesh, and that we also in Christ, are from God, born by the Spirit, into a relationship with God and His Son.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: 1 John 4