1 John 4:1-6

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because 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 of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

-New King James Version



So, first off, I'm apologizing because I'm going into a tangent and doing a passage from my series of QTs. I've been reading 1 John as my daily QTs and it's been helping me restructure and revamping my lifestyle; not drastically but in subtle ways. Anyway, onto the meaty stuff!!

A little background to begin, though. During the time that this was written, there were a lot of false teaching. Other than the Word, people believed all sorts of false and weird stuff; all those odd -isms (I would give examples, but I don't have my juicy Bible with me at the moment). So, in turn, these confused people were being pulled in by false prophets and teachings and straying from the actual Truth, which is the Word of God; they didn't know what to believe in or even who to believe in. So, God sent our boy John to deliver the Word and reel 'em back in. That's the general gist of things.

Whoever is in God, loves God and whoever isn't in God, doesn't love God; whoever loves the world, does not love God; etc. This is actually the message that seems to shout-out throughout this entire book.

We all are individual "spirits" in this world. Some provide true teaching and some provide false teaching. Since we know the true Spirit, we can distinguish from what's false and what's true. John continues to encourage those who are in that sort of weakened state.

Key verse for me:
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

I'm really moved by this verse alone. I realize over and over and over (and over again) that without God, my life is merely nothing; I'm just an empty vessel. And I come to realize that the "greatness" of the world isn't all that great; the money, the looks, the material possessions... Sure, it's great for the moment, but then that fades. Then what? We have media (a spirit) telling us that looks and money will get you places.

If you break it down, John states that since we are of God we have already overcome the world. He didn't say we will overcome it. He says it's been done!! Bring Jesus in your life and you're already set! That's how awesome our God is. That's the greatness of our God! God, through Jesus, has already won the war for us. It's an inevitable victory, but, hence, Satan still fights to drag the world down with him. I see it like a kamikaze type of moment. Satan knows he lost, but he wants to take out as many souls and spirits as possible, and that's where we come in.

I encourage everybody to do their part and really reach out to those in need, those who are lost, those who don't know our Lord. Let's sharpen each other as "iron sharpens iron." Even the simplest of things matter. The Word is an indestructable piece of weaponry; Love it and Live it. God Bless!

-Matthew Lee

PS: Sorry this is coming out so late, and if it sounds all jumbled up, my bad too. Hope you all had an awesome End of Week.