WEDNESDAY 15th
1 John 4:4–6
‘Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.’
In the final few words in the verses I have read today, John says, ‘By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.’ He concludes that although there is a plurality of spirits in the world, we who have come to know Christ have also come to know the Spirit of truth.
Truth comes from God, because he himself is truth, error comes from the world and sadly the world chooses to listen to the spirit or spirits that promote error rather than to listen to the truth. Sadly, although John doesn’t specifically say it here, many who have come to the truth, have fallen back into error, or are constantly filling their lives, or clogging their lives up with error. That is why it is so important that we do what John has said and to test the spirits to see whether they have come from God.
We have an Uptodate example of this taking place within Christendom at this moment, when what is supposed to be the state Church in particular, the Anglian Church who should be holding on firmly to the truth that is found in the word of God concerning the sanctity of marriage are allowing themselves to be persuaded by the spirit(s) that are coming from the world to cause them to move away from the centuries old and strongly held Biblical views of marriage. It is also happening in other denominations as well. The spirit of error being embraced rather than the Spirit of truth.
I firmly believe that we need to be more aware than ever of the spirit(s) of this world as they seek to undermine Biblical truth and that which should be our standard of practice, not just in the realm of the sanctity of marriage but other issues that are hot topics at this moment. We need to be convinced of the truth and remain firm in our stand upon it and maintaining of it and be assured that when these spirit raise themselves against us, as they are already doing and will increasingly seek all the more to do, that John assures us in these verses ‘that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world’ (v4). As I said a few devotions previously we need to stand up armed and protected in the full armour of God as the spirit(s) of this world builds up all it can to wage war against the Spirit of truth and the saints of God.
Pray for those who are involved in the public sphere who are doing all they can to stand up for the Christian faith such as Christian Concern and The Christian Institute, and for those who have been very vocal in opposing the direction that the Anglican Church is taking that they may continue to hold firm in the conviction of their faith and against the hostility that will be thrown against them.