...you belong to the family of God...

“1 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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. 4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” 1 John 4:1-6.

I have always considered this one of the best passages about temptations. Here John advises us “not to believe in every spirit” (verse 1). The evil spirits in our life are Satan’s temptations, and John tells us not to get sucked into — or believe in — all of the spirits that come to our attentions, especially into our thoughts. Instead, John says, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (verse 1). Test our temptations to see what we are thinking or feeling is from God.

Then John tells us how to test whether or not the spirit — or the temptation we are experiencing — is from Satan or from God. He says in verse 2, “2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” When we are tempted, in other words, John tells us to ask ourselves: Is this temptation, this thought I am having, speaking to me about who Jesus Christ really and truly is? Or is this spirit I am feeling telling me — or inviting me — to put Jesus on the back shelf, or to put Jesus in a box, and kick the box under the bed? When a spirit is telling us to do something, when our mind is telling us to do something, are we feeling that this is God calling us to follow Him, or is it clearly telling us that this this thought — this spirit — has nothing at all to do with Jesus? 

John wants to say one last thing to us: “4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (verse 4). Because you and I are from God, we are God’s children, we are a member of the family of God. We come from God, in other words. And because we come from God, we already have within us the power of God to walk away from the temptations, the spirits, of Satan. 

And how do we know this is true? Because the Good who is in us is infinitely more powerful than the spirit of Satan, who is not in us, but who comes to us from outside of us!

What John is writing is wonderfully simple to understand because it is the truth. And when something is true, it resonates with our thoughts and with our hearts. Fighting temptations is possible for us because we are from God. And we can call upon the Holy Spirit of God every time we are tempted. 

Today, then in your prayer, ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness — again — and pray that you will have the grace of God to turn to Him when the spirits come to pull you out of the family of God.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.