1 John 4:1-6
“Testing the Spirits”
Scripture: 1 John 4:1-6
Memory Verse: “…because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4b
Lesson Focus: Make sure that what you hear being taught is from God.
Activities and Crafts: Coloring page, word search and 1st and 2nd Craft:
1st & 2nd Grade Craft: “Not of this World Medallion.” Give each of the kids a medallion and have them color and decorate theirs. Cut them out and punch a hole in the top. Attach a ribbon or yarn and let them wear their medallion.
Introduction: “Not of This World” Game: (we will play this game much like “hot potato). Pass out several “world” balls and tell the kids that we are going to play a game of hot potato with the balls. The kids have to pass the ball down their row and keep passing it until the music stops. The child that ends up with the ball loses and has to get out of the row.
Tell them that today our lesson tells us to “not be of this world.” We live in the world but we do not believe the things it teaches. Our guide is the Word of God.
Bible Lesson:
Back in 1848 a miner named James Marshall found gold in California. He was the beginning of the great “Gold Rush.” They were called the “forty- niners.” But what these “forty-niners” soon discovered was that not everything that looked glittered was gold. There is something called “fools gold” and it is actually iron pyrite. It looks very similar to gold except that it is harder. Because it was not easy to tell which was the real gold they developed a test to discern which was which. One test was by biting the nugget with your teeth. Real gold is softer than the human tooth, but fools gold is harder. But after many teeth were hurt they developed another test. They would scrape the nugget on a piece of white stone, such as ceramic. True gold leaves a yellow streak and fools gold leaves a greenish black streak. All gold had to pass a test.
Today we are going to look at the test that God gave us in His word. This is a test for us to determine whether someone is speaking the truth of God or not. It is an important test and one that we all need to use.
1 John 4:1: “The Test!”
√ What is the first thing that John tells us Not To Do? (to not believe every spirit)
This verb actually means to “stop believing.” John is saying that they are to stop believing every false message that comes their way.
√ What does he tell us to do? (to test the spirits)
We are to test when someone says that they are speaking the truth to see if they are. In Acts 17:11 it says this, “These were more fair minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
What Luke is saying here in Acts is that the Thessalonians believers when they heard truth made sure that it was in the Scriptures. They did not just take someone’s word for it.
John’s use of the word “test” is the word used of those testing metal for purity. John uses the present tense to tell us to continually test the spirits to see if they are from God.
√ How do we “test” the spirits? The only way to test something we hear or read or see is to measure it against what God has revealed in the Scriptures.
√ How do we know that God’s Word is true?
- The Bible is God’s infallible (perfect) written Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
- The Bible is God perfect standard of truth. (John 17:17
- The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:17)
- The Bible provides us with our defense against error. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
√ What is the test John asks us to do? (to see if they are from God) So behind every prophet is a spirit, and behind each spirit is either God or the evil one. The origin of the spirit matters.
√ Why does he ask us to do this? (because many false teachers have gone out)
As John has talked about before – false teachers can start within the church. They usually claim to know a “new” truth…a truth that is not mentioned in the Word of God. Or they mix truth with error. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-14, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan transforms himself into an angel of light.” What Satan does is put his lies into someone who seems to be speaking for Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:2-3 “The Spirit of God”
√ How do we know the Spirit of God? (They confess that Jesus has come in the flesh)
1. Test #1: Who is Jesus? This is the most important test. The word “confess” means to say the same thing. So every person agrees with Scripture that Jesus came in the flesh and died on the cross to pay the price for our sin. (John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”) Jesus is God in the flesh…He is not a created being like us.
The simplicity of the Gospel:
- Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3
- Jesus rose again from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4)
- Believe in our hearts and repent of our sin. (Romans 10:9)
If someone adds anything else to the Gospel other than Jesus we must beware. Jesus is our main test to measure truth!
- This is the fundamental Christian doctrine: that Jesus Christ is the eternal divine/human Son of God.
- Today there are many “religions” that do not believe that Jesus is really God (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims.)
- We find the “true Jesus” in the Bible.
√ If they do not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh what are they?
- Not from God
- The spirit of the Antichrist
If the teaching of any one is from God it will confirm the deity and humanity of Jesus.
#2: Test #2 – What is the source of truth? The second test is to understand where this truth is coming from. The “world” does not understand spiritual things because they do not have the Spirit of God in them. If what is being taught or said does not line up with Scripture then it is not true.
1 John 4:4-6: “Not of this World”
√ What have we overcome? (Jesus overcame the world. We do not need to fear the world but to beware of the world and it’s teachings.)
√ Who is in you? (the indwelling Spirit of God is greater than the spirit of the world. He is our source of victory against the world.)
√ Who is greater than the world?
√ What does that mean? We may have spiritual enemies but we do not need to be afraid because not one of them is greater than Jesus.
Illustration: Submarines are made to withstand the great pressures of the water. Their shape and the materials that they are made of help them withstand the tremendous water pressure placed on them. But if you look out the window of a submarine that is 2 miles down in the ocean you will see fish that live there and are able to stand the water pressure at that deep level. The fish have scales that are not any thicker than any other type of fish. So how can they live at that level of pressure? The answer is the pressure on the inside of those fish is equal to the pressure of the water around them.
This is the key to fighting the enemy! The One who is inside of us is greater than the world outside of us. God in us is greater than any problem, temptation, difficulty that we will ever have. He will also reveal to us if we are hearing non-truth being taught. But we must be active in listening and discerning truth. Do not believe everything you hear!
√ How does the world speak? (It speaks of things of this world. The influence of the world is in their speech. Matthew 12:34 tells us that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”)
√ What does the world listen to?
√ Who do we belong to?
√ Who listens to us?
√ Who does not listen to us?
Conclusion: Go back to class and talk about some things that people claim are true but go against the truth of God’s Word.
1. Lie: You earn eternal life by doing good works. (Many religions such as Islam teach this. Jehovah’s Witnesses says that you need to be saved by Jesus but you also need good works)
Truth: Salvation is through Jesus Christ alone!
2. Lie: God will save everyone. Everyone will end up in heaven. (Universalism)
Truth: You must believe in Jesus for salvation (John 14:6)
3. Lie: The Bible is not reliable – it is flawed.
Truth: God word is from God. (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16)
4. Lie: There are many “gods.” Human beings worshiped as a God.
Truth: There is one God. (Mark 12:29) Our one God is in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)
Note to Teachers: I have several pamphlets that explain the difference between Christianity and other beliefs (i.e., Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.) They will be available at the Children’s Info booth.
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