The last thing John wrote in chapter 3 was this:
“And this is how we know that God lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
Right away he moves into a contrast.
4:1 My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit.
Okay, we have to talk about this word “spirit.” It comes from pneuma in the New Testament, and it can mean spirit, wind or breath. The Hebrew equivalent in the Old Testament was ruach, and it meant – wait for it – spirit, wind, or breath.
However, the Holy Spirit is not a thing. It is a person, one of the three persons in one being that is the trinity. There is not perfect analogy for this. Maybe you have seen the classic triangle. Images like this are imperfect to be sure, as the nature of God will be a mystery in the sense that its more than we can wrap our minds around. Just note that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the being of God. The trinity is co-equal and co-eternal in terms of essence, nature, power, intelligence, action, and will.[1]
Having said that, I think the divinely inspired words used to describe the Holy Spirit is give our frail minds an image of how the Holy Spirit works.
In a community where fishing was a livelihood, it’s a really descriptive word. People understood how the wind moves you in a particular direction. You must catch the right wind to get to the right place. We used to play this game in youth group where two people on opposite sides of a table would try to blow a ping pong ball across the table. We understand how wind and breath works. This is the idea. That ping pong ball went the direction of the most powerful wind at the table.
The Holy Spirit is the wind (breath) of God moving us in God’s direction. This is the idea behind the biblical claim that “All Scripture is God-breathed…”[2] It doesn’t mean God controlled the hands of the biblical writers. It means God moved their spirits in the direction he wanted them to go as they were writing.
Keep this image in mind. That’s going to be a theme this morning. In the worldview of the Bible, the spirits that move us can be supernatural or natural – that is, “spirits” can be the Holy Spirit; angels fallen or unfallen; human desires; or even the spirit of the age. This image applies broadly because every spirit move us in a direction. They all push us toward a shore (to go back to sailing imagery). We have to unfurl our sails and catch the right spirit/breath/wind if we want leave these Grey Havens and reach the Undying Lands. #lordoftherings
My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from God (i.e. the Holy Spirit), because the corrupt world is filled[3] with the voices of many false prophets [who appear to be genuine but lead people away from the truth by their false teaching].[4]
Anyone can string words together about the Bible, God, and Jesus; this does not mean they are moved, formed or informed by the Holy Spirit.[5]
2 Here is how you know God’s Spirit: if a spirit affirms the truth that Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, has come in human flesh, then that spirit is from God. 3 If a spirit does not affirm the true nature of Jesus the Anointed, then that spirit does not come from God and is, in fact, the spirit of the antiChrist. You have heard about its coming;[6] in fact it is already active in the world.
John's warning here[7] is that people can and are inspired by spirits that are not from God, be it simply their own spirit or something more sinister. Sure, they were inspirational – but the wind of their breath was catching the sails of people and leading them to shipwreck.[8]
4 My children, you have come from God and have conquered (overcome) these spirits because the One who lives within you is greater than the one in this world. 5 But they are of this world, and they articulate the views of the corrupt world, which the world understands. 6a We come from God, and those who know God hear us. Whoever is not from God will not listen to us.
The direct application of “greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world” is that they have overcome the false prophets in the world, because they resisted their teaching (v.5) thanks to the fact that the spirit of God in them – the breath which moved them toward a goal - was "greater than the one who is in the world" (v.4).
Here is the key competing “wind of doctrine”[9]: the acknowledgment or denial of Jesus’ incarnation and all of its implications. The acknowledgment is central to Christian belief and discipleship.
If Jesus was not fully God, we would have little confidence that the God has been revealed to us.
If Jesus was not fully God, his sacrifice on the cross would have had limited importance, if any.
If Jesus was not fully God, there would be no reason to call him Lord, give him our allegiance, or commit to his Kingdom.
If Jesus was not fully human and didn’t know what it was like to be us, we would not have confidence that he really is an empathetic[10] advocate for us.
If Jesus was not fully human and didn’t know what it was like to be us, we could rightly wonder if he really knows how to set up a community (the church) in which we can actually flourish.
So, understanding the nature of Jesus is crucial to the good news of the gospel. This gospel, by the way, will undo you and rebuild you.
It will put to death sin in you and bring life more abundant.
It will expose you and cover you.
It will fight the corruption in you and fight for you.
If Jesus has not in some fashion landed like an earthquake in your life, you have yet to experience the fullness of Jesus. And if you have not yet felt his tenderness and love reconstructing the rubble in your life and bringing beauty from ashes, you also have yet to experience the fullness of Jesus.
Now, to a gospel that the world loves. The world loves a gospel that is not this countercultural and unsettling. They want a cross without death, an earthquake without upheaval, a face lift on the shack of their life rather than a dozing and rebuilding. It’s…easier. More comfortable. More in line with we know and want.
John’s reference is to that which appeals to our carnal nature – carn, meat, something that appeals to us just as mammals with urges. One who is carnal turns their sails to the spirit of the world rather than the Holy Spirit.
I found a great article with a list of Symptoms of Carnality from an evangelist with the Free Methodists in the late 1800s/early 1900s named Elmer Shelhamer (literally, “loud hammer.” That’s not important, but I think it’s a fantastic name origin). I had to update the language and some of the examples, but I found his list to be thought-provoking.
Think of this as a self-assessment. It’s a way for us to see what wind is catching our sails.
Are we becoming more ‘meaty’ and less Jesusy, or more Jesusy and less ‘meaty’?
What is our trajectory?
If it’s looking like we are heading for the wrong shore, where is that spiritual wind coming from that is pushing us there? And how do we adjust our sails
SYMPTOMS OF CARNALITY
l. A sense of pride: an overly exalted feeling in view of your success, your position, or your importance; looking upon yourself as far more important than others because of your good training, appearance, or gifts and abilities; a dislike of authority. You hate to ask for help from God or others.
The Holy Spirit will move you toward humility and servanthood. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
2. Love of praise: a need to be the center of attention (not the same as a the importance of affirmation); you do (even good) things for the praise of others; a love of supremacy (the need to be the best at something); constantly turning the attention to self in conversation; an exaggeration of yourself when you speak.
The Holy Spirit will lead you to “esteem others better than yourself,[11]” to elevate others, to create appropriate applause for them, and to decrease while Christ increases. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
3. Easily Triggered: a touchy, overly sensitive spirit prone to taking offense; reading the worst into what someone says or how someone acts; being resentful or retaliating when corrected: tense conversations quickly become sharp, heated flinging of words.
The Holy Spirit will lead us to long-suffering, patience, giving the benefit of the doubt as long as we can and keeping our words and our heads as cool as we can. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
4. Love of power/control: a stubborn, unteachable spirit; an unyielding, head-strong attitude; a need to plan and dictate (“My voice must be heard and obeyed!”); a driving, commanding presence; rarely admits weakness or fault.
The Holy Spirit leads us to interdependence and mutual submission. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
5. A jealous disposition: unhappiness in view of the prosperity and success of others; a tendency to speak of the faults and failings, rather than the gifts and virtues, of others; characterized by self-pity (“Why do they have that and I don’t?”) and self-righteousness (“Because I certainly deserve it more than they do”).
The Holy Spirit will lead you to be content and at peace in any situation, slow to criticize and quick to affirm. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
6. Lust: practicing sexual objectification; viewing people as a means to your sexual gratification; refusing so put up solid fences in your life just in case the opportunity for inappropriate indulgence presents itself; avoiding accountability because you can’t image life without the fulfillment of lust.
The Holy Spirit will build in you a love of purity, honor, and an increasing understanding of the value, worth and dignity of all God’s image bearers. It will also build in you an appreciation for the goodness of sex within righteous boundaries. #songofsolomon If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
7. Formality and deadness: you settle for knowing about God mentally instead of knowing God. Disdain for lost souls rather than concern; dryness and indifference about spiritual things; love of structure over people; love of order and predictability over vibrant, messy relationships.
The Holy Spirit will move you into orthopathos (right feelings) to go along with orthodoxy (right beliefs) and orthopraxy (right actions). If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails
8. Stinginess: being over-exacting with little things; slow to hand out complements to others; “falling out with others over a few apples, chickens, or pigs” (I had to keep that one from Elmer “Loud Hammer”); giving just enough to ease our conscience.
The Holy Spirit will lead you toward generosity with money, with words, with the benefit of the doubt. If you are moving away from this, the wind from a different spirit is in your sails.
9. Combative: being narrow and divisive in favor of your crowd; cool and unloving toward others who differ; eager to argue and take the contrary side because you think conflict equals godliness; sitting back with a critical and over-wise air.[12] For you Chronicles of Narnia fans, it reminds me of Lewis’s assessment of one group in The Last Battle: “The dwarves are for the dwarves.”
The Holy Spirit will lead you to love those who are different – not necessarily everything they do or stand for, but love them; there will be an eagerness to build a bridge for the sake of gospel. Look at what Paul says (1 Corinthians 9:19 -23):
Even though no one (except Jesus) owns me, I have become a slave by my own free will to everyone in hopes that I would gather more believers. When around Jews, I emphasize my Jewishness in order to win them over. When around those who live strictly under the law, I live by its regulations—even though I have a different perspective on the law now—in order to win them over.
In the same way, I’ve made a life outside the law to gather those who live outside the law (although I personally abide by and live under the Anointed One’s law). I’ve been broken, lost, depressed, oppressed, and weak that I might find favor and gain the weak.
I’m flexible, adaptable, and able to do and be whatever is needed for all kinds of people so that in the end I can use every means at my disposal to offer them salvation. I do it all for the gospel and for the hope that I may participate with everyone who is blessed by the proclamation of the good news.
So that’s our self-assessment. What spirit is filling the sails of your life? Are you sailing towards life or death?
And what does it look like this week to actively practice learning from and responding to this self-assessment?
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[1] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/one-essence-three-person/
[2] 2315 theópneustos (from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out") – properly, God-breathed, referring to the divine inspiration (inbreathing) of Scripture (used only in 2 Tim 3:16)…. Likely a term coined by Paul… relates directly to God's Spirit (Gk pneuma) which can also be translated "breath." (HELPS Word Studies)
[3] John talked about them earlier in 1 John 2:19 - “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
[4] See Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; 2 Peter 2:1.
[5] Jewish tradition usually attributed Biblical prophecy to God’s Spirit (often also in the OT, e.g., Nu 11:25). Many Jewish circles associated false prophecy with evil spirits (1Samuel 18:10; 1Kings 22:22 – 23 or with the false prophets’ own spirits (Ezekiel 13:3). Either one would be a false spirit. (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Commentary)
[6] See 1 John 2:18 – “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”
[7] John's warning here is not against those who pretend to have the Spirit's presence by faking manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit. Paul appears to have addressed this already (1Corinthians 12:3; 14 and 1Thessalonians 5:21).
[8] Expositor’s Bible Commentary
[9] “Henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…” (Ephesians 4:14)
[10] Hebrews 4:15
[11] Philippians 2:3
[12] The foundation of this list comes from Traits of the Carnal Mind by Elmer E. Shelhamer, as well as the article at http://readyforthekingdom.blogspot.com/2008/06/signs-of-carnal-christian.html, which drew from Watchman Nee’s The Spiritual Man.