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1 John 4 — test the spirits, and God is love
Dillon McCurdy · September 13, 2026 · 8 min read
Through 1 John, part 6 · 1 John 4
Test the spirits (vv. 1–6)
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
Not everyone who claims to speak for God is from God. The problem is plain — there are many who teach false doctrine. Which means a healthy church member is a Bible scholar. Are you able to discern from Scripture what's true?
John gives the test for the specific error of his day: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist." Deny that Jesus is the Christ who came in the flesh, and you're against God. "You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." The Holy Spirit helps you detect error and overcome it.
"They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them." Approval from the world is no test of truth. Just because people listen doesn't make it right. "Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us." Those who are of God accept the teaching of Scripture; those who aren't, reject it. That's how you tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.
God is love (vv. 7–8)
"Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love." Those who know God and spend time with Him will love others. And the flip side is stated just as plainly: those who lack love, lack God.
How love was shown (vv. 9–11)
"God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him." Love is always shown. God's love was shown by sending Jesus — His only begotten Son, the One who holds a place no one else holds — so that we might live through Him.
"Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."
God's love is perfect in the sense that He loved first. And He loved us in our sinfulness, not our goodness — "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Which leads to the key verse of the whole letter: "Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another." If we are loved by God, and if we are to be like God, we love others.
Love completed in us (v. 12)
"No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us." The unsaved don't know God or have a relationship with Him, so they can't discern or even feel His love. Jesus was the visible expression of God, and God's love was shown through Him. Now that Jesus has ascended, the love of God flows and is completed through us — the people He lives in. If the world is going to see God's love, it's going to see it in how Christians love.
The proof (vv. 13–16)
"This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit." The number one proof of your salvation is the Spirit of God in you. Our access to God's will comes through and from the Spirit — so how do you interact with Him in your everyday life? "And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world's Savior" — John saw it. "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him, and he in God." Like a sponge in water: it's in the water, and the water is in it. And "God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God." If I'm going to love God and be in fellowship with Him, I have to love what He loves — and God loves believers.
No fear in love (vv. 17–19)
"In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world." God's love completes its work as it flows through us to others. That's the life a true Christian will produce, and so we can approach the judgment with confidence rather than dread. "There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment." We can be confident in God's love for us, and that confidence drives out the fear of condemnation. "We love because he first loved us." He extended it; we received it; and we return it.
You can't have one without the other (vv. 20–21)
"If anyone says, 'I love God,' and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." The love in us came from God, so it can't coexist with hatred for God's people. "And we have this command from him: the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister."
He went first
"We love because he first loved us." Look at the order of that. God didn't stand back and wait to see how you'd turn out. He sent His Son as the sacrifice for sin while nobody on earth was asking Him to — Jesus died and rose, and everything standing between you and the Father got dealt with right there. If it's the fear of judgment keeping you at arm's length from God, you've got it backwards. His love is the cure for that fear, not the reward for getting over it. It's offered to whoever will take it. Take it.
Then the hard half. "The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister." There's a name in your head right now. There is. This week, do one loving thing for that person — a text, a coffee, an apology you know you owe — and don't wait for them to move first. He didn't.