Discerning Truth from Lies
“So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.”
A few years back, I had my students do a scavenger hunt for Youth Night. They all went off exploring in teams. Eventually, one of the boys came to me and another youth leader, and told me about a group that told him he was special.
He said, “Ms. Shala, they told me how Jesus had hair like wool, and because Black people have kinky hair, we’re special and chosen by God.” I looked at this sweet 8th grader who felt like he had been enlightened to this fantastic and life-changing truth.
And I said, “My mom is Asian. She doesn’t have kinky hair but has straight, smooth hair. Does that mean she is less special to God or less chosen by God because she’s not Black?” It didn’t take him long to say, “Nah, that’s racist!” And off he went, able to discern truth from lies, remaining faithful to the Good News that Jesus came to redeem all of humanity.
At the time, this situation was obvious to me. And it may be obvious to you too, but it wasn’t to him. It wasn’t that we, as his youth leaders and his parents, hadn’t taught him the truth. But he was still figuring things out, developing his prefrontal cortex. He simply needed to study the truth about God on his own so that his conviction and faith were no longer borrowed.
We all encounter this at some point in our Christian life. Knowing the truth for ourselves is where true faithfulness begins. We are surrounded by various teachings, some true and some false. And it can be hard to discern what is of the spirit versus the flesh.
The church has been wrestling with how to remain faithful to the truth of Jesus and how to test the spirits since the early church because these issues are all over Scripture.
Testing the spirits is a major thrust behind 1 John, which was written sometime between AD 85-90 with eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry still alive. But it doesn’t take long for false teaching to creep in. Add 2000 years to that, and we will inevitably struggle.
The passage in 1 John helps us understand what it means to remain faithful and the importance of testing the spirits rather than accepting everything we hear from others.
It’s always important to remember the context and place yourselves in the shoes of the early church who first read and heard this letter from the Apostle John. Some people didn’t like the whole Jesus is fully God and fully man, so they left the humanity part out. Yet, others wouldn’t accept that Jesus was fully God, seeing Him only as a man who did not come from God, and thought it was blasphemous for Him to claim anything more.
In 1 John 2:18–28, John warns against the antichrists who are coming and have already appeared and how to discern and remain faithful. He says:
“Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth. So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.
I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.”
John is like look, you’ll need to go back to the beginning and remember what we, Jesus and the apostles, taught you. And this is important for you to note. When you are wrestling with your faith and the things you believe in, you have to go back to the beginning. But not to your beginning. Not to when you first became a Christian or the early things you were taught because you might have been taught wrong in the beginning. You must go back to Jesus and the apostles’ teaching to look for and confirm the truth about Christ and His way of life. So that when an antichrist (someone who is literally anti Jesus being the Christ) comes your way, you’ll be able to remain faithful.
There are a couple of practical ways to remain faithful to God’s Word and test the spirits.
1) Going Back To The Basics: Apostles Creed
When I was in Italy, our group of 16 gathered outside for morning liturgy every day. Every day, we confessed our faith together through the Apostle’s Creed, a summary of the foundational principles or doctrines of faith taught by the apostles. This creed helps us reaffirm our beliefs and is a way to learn some of the basics of our faith.
2) Fact-Checking False Prophets
We have to fact-check those whose teachings we choose to sit under. As humans, no one is infallible. Even those we have the utmost respect for and whose teachings we enjoy should be held against God’s Word.
A great example is the Bereans mentioned in Acts 17:11: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
The Bereans were noble because they were eager and excited to hear what was being preached and went back to Scripture to fact-check Paul. And y’all, I still fact-check everyone I sit under, even those who have taught and mentored me. Why? Because they’re human, and sometimes humans get it wrong.
But here is the thing about fact-checking. We have to be familiar or get familiar with Scripture, church history, and the cultural context. It takes diligent devotion and intentional study if you want to follow Jesus well and be equipped to fact-check and detect false prophets who might be twisting the truth.
Similarly, as a photographer, I advance in my craft not just by shooting every week but by constantly studying the tools, learning from other teachers, upgrading my gear, and then putting into practice what I learned. And now, I can typically look at other images and see how they got their shot, or if their shot is off, I know why. Whether it’s a poor lens or wrong settings, color temperature, or focus.
Tips for Testing the Spirits
In closing, here are a few tips on testing the spirits. When listening to someone teach, you can use these tools from 1 John 4:1 to examine or test the spirits to see if they are from God.
Is it evident in Scripture? Can you confirm what they are saying in the Word of God? Sometimes, this requires taking a look at the overarching story of Scripture.
Is this person committed to Jesus’ body? John said that you can’t reject the Son and have the Father. It’s got to be both. And we know that the fellowship of believers is the body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head.
What is the testimony of their way of life? Does it testify to loving God and loving others as Christ loved us?
How is the fruit of their ministry? Ministry simply means service. If they proclaim to be a prophet, teacher, or leader, what kind of fruit do you see from how they serve others, or are they just looking to be served?
Last but not least, what do they believe about Christ? Do they believe that He is fully God and fully human?
Prayer Starter
Father, our prayer is that Your Holy Spirit would help us to discern lies from the truth and to test the spirits. Help us not to blindly rely on or depend on others for our knowledge of Christ, but to know Him for ourselves. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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