On Denying the Incarnation
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 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. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
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[Or spirit] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God’s Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
NOTES:
4:1–6 Deception is possible in spiritual phenomena and may
be tested by its relation to Christian doctrine (cf. 1 Cor 12:3): those who
fail to acknowledge Jesus Christ in the flesh are false prophets and belong to
the antichrist. Even though these false prophets are well received in the
world, the Christian who belongs to God has greater power in the truth.
4:3 Does not acknowledge Jesus: some ancient manuscripts add
“Christ” and/or “to have come in the flesh” (cf. 1 Jn 4:2), and others read
“every spirit that annuls (or severs) Jesus.”
4:7–12 Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God
and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of
God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without
God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of
his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our
sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic,
merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can
“see” the invisible God.
4:13–21 The testimony of the Spirit and that of faith join
the testimony of love to confirm our knowledge of God. Our love is grounded in
the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God’s love for us. The Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing
presence that relieves us from fear of judgment (1 Jn 4:16–18). What Christ is, gives us confidence, even as we live and love in this world. Yet Christian love
is not abstract but lived in a concrete manner of love for one another.
4:20 Cannot love God: some ancient manuscripts read “how can
he love…?”
BACK TO:
Copyright © 2020 by Ekklesia Katholes (Acts 9:31)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.
No comments:
Post a Comment