Authentic Teaching
-
Last Fall I began a series entitled Spiritual Tests: How We Know What is Authentic. While I’ve taken some detours along the way, here is a review of some of the ground we’ve covered regarding ways we can test our own authenticity:
• Godly Self-Examination
• God’s Examination
• Examination from Godly People
From here I’d like to explore with you how we test the influence of others on our lives, both the claims of truth we receive, as well as the credibility of the source of those claims.
God has given us this instruction from the Apostle John:
Beloved, 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
(1 John 4:1-3 NASB)
In this context, the word ‘spirit’ refers to a person or teacher who acts or professes to act under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by divine inspiration (from The Complete Word-Study Dictionary, AMG). In other words, not every person who claims to speak for God is actually doing so. In fact, Scripture warns us that many false teachers will come (Mark 13:22-23, 2 Peter 2:1-3) and that even during the time the New Testament was written, some had appeared (Jude 1:3-4ff). So God’s people have had to be on their guard for quite some time! In fact, we are warned that false teachers will disguise themselves as apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). So, how do we know?
What the Apostle John tells us here is that we are to evaluate a teaching specifically by what it says about Jesus Christ. Given that Jesus Himself is the truth (John 14:6), we can affirm with John that this is the very best way to determine the veracity (truthfulness) of the teaching we are exposed to.
So – what must a teacher affirm about Christ to be believed?
• That Jesus Christ was an actual person who came to earth as a man (1 John 4:2).
• That Jesus Christ is, in fact, God (1 John 2:22-23, 4:15, 5:1, 20, see also John 1:1, 14).
In other words, the mysterious, dual nature of the God-man Jesus must be affirmed for the teaching to be believed. Such is the nature – and importance – of the person of Jesus.
I am continually amazed at how truth is revealed simply by asking, “Who is Jesus?” Your friends who may be Muslim, or Mormon, or Jehovah’s Witness, for example may claim to you that they worship the same God, but would not affirm the truth about Jesus. Rather than agree with their false teaching, let us patiently but firmly affirm the truth about Christ, and be used of God to lead them to Him.
May we see people like Peter and the friends of the woman at the well turn to the truth that is in Jesus:
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
(Matthew 16:16 NASB)
and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."
(John 4:42 NASB)
Next, Lord willing we will talk about the importance of character in proclaiming truth, i.e. not just speaking it, but very obviously living it.
In His Grip,
Mark
Last Fall I began a series entitled Spiritual Tests: How We Know What is Authentic. While I’ve taken some detours along the way, here is a review of some of the ground we’ve covered regarding ways we can test our own authenticity:
• Godly Self-Examination
• God’s Examination
• Examination from Godly People
From here I’d like to explore with you how we test the influence of others on our lives, both the claims of truth we receive, as well as the credibility of the source of those claims.
God has given us this instruction from the Apostle John:
Beloved, 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
(1 John 4:1-3 NASB)
In this context, the word ‘spirit’ refers to a person or teacher who acts or professes to act under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by divine inspiration (from The Complete Word-Study Dictionary, AMG). In other words, not every person who claims to speak for God is actually doing so. In fact, Scripture warns us that many false teachers will come (Mark 13:22-23, 2 Peter 2:1-3) and that even during the time the New Testament was written, some had appeared (Jude 1:3-4ff). So God’s people have had to be on their guard for quite some time! In fact, we are warned that false teachers will disguise themselves as apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). So, how do we know?
What the Apostle John tells us here is that we are to evaluate a teaching specifically by what it says about Jesus Christ. Given that Jesus Himself is the truth (John 14:6), we can affirm with John that this is the very best way to determine the veracity (truthfulness) of the teaching we are exposed to.
So – what must a teacher affirm about Christ to be believed?
• That Jesus Christ was an actual person who came to earth as a man (1 John 4:2).
• That Jesus Christ is, in fact, God (1 John 2:22-23, 4:15, 5:1, 20, see also John 1:1, 14).
In other words, the mysterious, dual nature of the God-man Jesus must be affirmed for the teaching to be believed. Such is the nature – and importance – of the person of Jesus.
I am continually amazed at how truth is revealed simply by asking, “Who is Jesus?” Your friends who may be Muslim, or Mormon, or Jehovah’s Witness, for example may claim to you that they worship the same God, but would not affirm the truth about Jesus. Rather than agree with their false teaching, let us patiently but firmly affirm the truth about Christ, and be used of God to lead them to Him.
May we see people like Peter and the friends of the woman at the well turn to the truth that is in Jesus:
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
(Matthew 16:16 NASB)
and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."
(John 4:42 NASB)
Next, Lord willing we will talk about the importance of character in proclaiming truth, i.e. not just speaking it, but very obviously living it.
In His Grip,
Mark
Comments
Post a Comment