1John 3:21— 4:6

Love Builds Confidence

21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.

This verse is a continuation of the thought in the previous verses. If we love one another not only in word but actively, if we have shared of this world’s goods with those in need then we can confidently stand in God’s presence and our hearts will not condemn us. Those who only hear without doing the word have deceived themselves, see James 1:22.

22 Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Doing all the things God has commanded us to do not only allows us to stand before

Him confidently, but we can be sure that we will have the request we ask of Him.

When our heart’s desire is the same as His, we will love one another and we will

have what we ask for because we do not ask to consume it selfishly. See James 4:3.

23 And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Believing is just as important as doing. All is done in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and for His glory. We must always remember that without Him we can do nothing: we have no righteousness of our own. He always empowers the believer to do, or keep, His commandments; loving God and one another are at the top of the list.

24 The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

Those who abide in, or are vitally connected to, God, through the Holy Spirit, have tapped into His power, which enables us to keep the commandments. This is the evidence that God lives and remains in us because we know that, without His Holy Spirit remaining in us, we could not keep His commandments. Love for one another

identifies us as Jesus’ disciples. See John 13:35.

Testing the Spirits

4:1 Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Many false teachers and prophets are in the world, so we must be able to discern the true from the false. John says: test the spirits to prove if they are from God. The one from God will speak by the authority of the Holy Spirit but false teachers speak from a counterfeit spirit.

1Co 12:3 Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by God's Spirit

can say, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy

Spirit.

4:2 This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Those who speak on behalf of God will testify to the fact that Jesus Christ was, and is, God and that He came in the flesh. Jesus, the Word, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father's unique Son, full of grace and truth.

4:3 But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

Jesus Christ: God taking on human flesh, living a sinless life then dying for the sins of all mankind, stripped the kingdom of darkness of its power and authority. Jesus disarmed principalities and powers, revealing their true identity. All who believe and confess Jesus as Lord and Christ will be removed from the power of the kingdom of darkness and positioned into the Kingdom of God’s Son. The kingdom of darkness and the spirit of antichrist only have power in darkness. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The spirit of antichrist can not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and God manifested in the flesh, because darkness cannot shine forth true light. The spirit of antichrist will only acknowledge Jesus as equal with other men, not God in human flesh.

4:4 Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The Greater One, the Holy Spirit, resides in everyone who believes in, acknowledges, and confesses Jesus Christ as Lord. The believer has been placed on higher ground and has the overcoming advantage of that position. Our enemy is under our feet because of our position not because of our own crafty efforts in battle.

4:5 These people belong to the world. That is why they speak from the world's perspective, and the world listens to them.

4:6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Previously, John spoke of identifying a spirit of error but now he brings it down to a

personal level. People of the world are tuned in, so to speak, to the spirit of the world

which is of antichrist. God’s people are tuned into the Holy Spirit’s broadcast on

the frequency of heaven. We can tell those who are listening to the spirit of error

because they are consumed with the cares of life and the things of this world. Those

who are tuned into God’s Spirit will agree with Him and with us. Their focus is on

eternal things above, using the resources of this temporary life to lay up treasures in

heaven, where the natural corruption of this world cannot devalue and the thief cannot

break in and steal.