Do you know the real Jesus from a fake ?
How to test the spirits as John taught us below.
1 John 4:1-3
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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 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.
We are warned not only from Jesus but Peter,Paul and John about false teachers that would arise among the flock of God. Here in this most important passage the apostle John lays out for us a way to know for sure if a “prophet or teacher” is of God or the spirit of antichrist. Remember there are only one of 2 spirits that any message being communicated about Jesus can be from, the first is the Spirit of God and the other is the spirit of antichrist. Believe it or not the apostle John gives us the tests to prove whether one speaks by the Spirit of God or antichrist regarding the person of Jesus. We need to ask ourselves what does it actually mean to confess Jesus has come in the flesh? This becomes the litmus test for the Christian or we can call it the lie detector test. We can hook someone up to the polygraph machine on this one and detect the truth from a lie, the Spirit of God verse the spirit of antichrist. Did you in order to spot a counterfeit, the agents in banks are not trained by studying fake $100 bills but the real ones? It is only in knowing the genuine articles that the fakes are easily spotted. Such is the case with the bible. Unless you know it, you will accept a fake and believe it is real. John lets us know in his epistle how to spot a counterfeit.
To confess- NT:3670
1. homologeo (o(mologe/w, NT:3670), lit., "to speak the same thing" (homos, "same," lego, "to speak"), "to assent, accord, agree with," denotes, (a) "to confess, declare, admit,"
(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
To confess means to agree with, say the same thing or to admit what has been declared about Christ. What John is telling his readers is that they must agree with him what has been declared about Jesus. When we look at John writings we see that The Word was God and the Word became(a coming with an abiding effect)flesh. This is fundamental to the Christian faith the Incarnation. God became(permanently) man and dwelt among us. John makes that clear when he says that Jesus has come in the flesh.
Has come- this is in the perfect tense which means a past action with continuing results in the present. John is telling us at the time he penned these words that Jesus came in the flesh in the past and that He continues in the flesh in the present, well after His ascension to the Father. Christ took upon Himself flesh and this has become His permanent dwelling. This is a direct refutation of the Gnostic Cerinthus who taught that Christ only temporarily assumed a body.
So we can see from John here that anyone that does not agree the Jesus is both permanently God and man is the spirit of antichrist and this persons message is not from God. John is writing after the resurrection and is using perfect tense in Greek which denotes a past action with continuing results into the present, and continuing on through eternity. Christ came in the flesh, He rose from the dead in the flesh, Ascended into heaven in the flesh and is now 2000 years later still in the flesh. The same body that He was born and died with that still bare the marks of His crucifixion, He rose with from the grave. If one claims that Christ rose as a spirit being and not in His physical material body of flesh and bones, they are of the spirit of antichrist. One cannot deny the Deity of Jesus or His humanity. Those who deny any of these truths according to John do not have the Father, the Son or the Spirit.
1 John 4:2
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
2 John 7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Erchomenon the present participle in 2 John 7
Alford- the present tense is timeless(pg 274 RNTC on 2 John)
Brooke- the Incarnation is not only an event in history, it is an abiding truth(pg 274 RNTC on 2 John)
Stott- the two natures manhood and Godhood were united already at His birth, never to be divided. In 1 John 4:2 and here in 2 John 7 emphasizes this permanent union of the natures in the One Person ( TNTC pages 209-210) He who denies the Incarnation is not just a deceiver and an antichrist but “the deceiver and the antichrist”. There is in this heresy a double affront: it opposes Christ and deceives men.(stott TNCT page 210)
Marshall- the use of the present and perfect tenses becomes significant if the point is that Jesus Christ had come and still existed “in flesh”. For him(John) it was axiomatic that there had been a true Incarnation, that the word became flesh and remained flesh. It is a point that receives much stress in 1 John 2:18-28;4:1-6;5:5-8. (NICNT pages 70-71)
Smalley- the present tense emphasizes the permanent union of the human and Divine natures in Jesus. Gods self disclosure in Jesus took place at a particular moment in history , but it has continuing effects in the present and into the future(Word Biblical Commentary page 317)
Nicoll- the continuous manifestation of the Incarnate Christ(Expositors Greek Testament Volume 5 page 202)
Akin- Much has been made of the fact that John uses the present tense in this Christological confession. Literally the verse reads, “Jesus Christ coming in flesh.” “Coming” is a present active participle. This stands out in remarkable contrast to the affirmation of 1 John 4:2, where the text states that “Jesus Christ has [emphasis mine] come in the flesh.” There the perfect active participle is used. The key, it seems, is to discover what John is affirming. Here in 2 John the emphasis falls on the abiding reality of the incarnation. First John 4:2 teaches that the Christ, the Father’s Son (v. 3), has come in the flesh. Second John affirms that the wedding of deity and humanity has an abiding reality (cf. 1 Tim 2:5). The ontological and essential nature of the incarnation that would receive eloquent expression one thousand years later in the writing of St. Anselm (1033–1109) in his classic Cur Deus Homo is already present in seed form in the tiny and neglected letter of 2 John.
Lenski- In 1 John 4:2 we have ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα, the perfect participle, “as having come in flesh” (incarnate, John 1:14); here we have ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί, “as coming in flesh,” although the participle is present in form it is really timeless.
of Christ as "still being manifested." See the note at 1 John 3:5. In 1 John 4:2 we have the manifestation treated as a past fact by the perfect tense, eleeluthota "has come
Robertson- That Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh Ieesoun Christon erchomenon en sarki. "Jesus Christ coming in the flesh." Present middle participle of erchomai treating the Incarnation as a continuing fact which the Docetic Gnostics flatly denied. In 1 John 4:2 we have eleeluthota (perfect active participle) in this same construction with homologeoo, because there the reference is to the definite historical fact of the Incarnation.
Vincent- Is come erchomenon. Wrong. The verb is in the present participle, "coming," which describes the manhood
hope this helps !!!
