Fake or Genuine

622.  " Fake or Genuine"              October 5, 2012
1 John 4-Part 1    (verses 1-3)
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God.  1John 4:2

LET IT GLOW

While on a mission trip to Brazil, my husband bought a genuine leather billfold. It has lasted him eleven years, which proves how genuine it is. Other materials, such as fake leather, do not last that long, especially in the back pocket of a man. It seems to me that nowadays there are few things which are genuine. We look for genuine leather purses, diamond rings, silver platters, gold necklaces, but do we look for teachers who are genuinely from God? How can we know if a teacher or preacher is genuine or fake? John helps us answer that question.

(Genuine means not counterfeit, authentic, real, according to Webster's Dictionary.)

 Who is truly a Christian teacher? The teacher who has the Word of God, who confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. They follow the Spirit of Truth and proclaim the truth.
The readers, who truly know God, will recognize and willingly accept the word of the apostles for what it really is, the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). (Falwell)

A true teacher acknowledges and proclaims that Jesus is God incarnate in human flesh to the earth. His human body was physically real. Both the full humanity and full deity of Jesus must be equally maintained by the teacher who is to be considered genuinely of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies to the true nature of the Son. God's Word is the only absolute and trustworthy standard. (MacArthur)



LET IT GROW

I always say, "Not all things are as they appear." People  may say one thing and do another. They may actually be a wolf in sheep's clothing. So how do we know which is which?
John tells us, in verse 1, to believe not every spirit and to test the spirits.

The word spirit, in Thayer's Lexicon, ascribes to God, God's power and agency, manifest in the course of affairs, and by its influence upon souls productive in the theocratic body (the church) of all the higher spiritual gifts and blessings. In the New Testament, it is called the Holy Spirit, full of majesty, adorable, utterly opposed to all impurity; pneuma in the Greek. (Other Greek words for spirit are neshamah, meansing breath, and ruach, meaning wind.)

John tells us to do two things:
1. Believe not every spirit. False prophets and teachers claimed to have spiritual leading from God,
    but in reality, it was/is from the devil.
2. Try the spirits. Try means to test, examine, prove, scrutinize, to see whether a thing be genuine or
    not, as metals; try men. Liberty Bible Commentary says try (dokimazo in Greek) means to check
    out by a pattern or standard that never changes; the standard intended is the Word of God.

If a spirit, a person, false prophet, teaches a false doctrine, gives a false message.

A false prophet does  not believe Jesus was God, nor do they believe Jesus was a real man. Both diety and humanity of Jesus are essential to our salvation. The Antichrist opposes the true Jesus and offers a substitute Jesus. (Guzik)

John reminds his readers that behind human teachers who propagate false doctrine and error are demons inspired by Satan. Human false prophets and teachers are the physical expressions of demonic, spiritual sources (Matt. 7:15, Mark 13:22).  (MacArthur)

LET IT GO

Check out teachers and preachers to see if they are genuinely teaching the Truth, God's Word.

Study the Bible so I will recognize false teachings.

Ask the Holy Spirit for discernment.

Teach the Truth.

*I do believe Jesus is God and He came in the flesh as a man, lived a perfect life, was a perfect sacrifice for our sins, yours and mine, showed grace and mercy by dying in our place.