What spirit animates my life?

What spirit animates my life?

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1 John chapter 3 , verses 23 to 24
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, according to the commandment which he has given us.
24 He who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him; and we know that he dwells in us by the Spirit he has given us.

The commandment to “love one another” is a visible practical consequence that testifies that God dwells in us by His Spirit.

If brotherly love is any indication, ultimately our confidence rests in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

But beware, what Spirit are we talking about?

This is what John 4 says
1 John chapter 4 , verses 1 to 6
1 Beloved, do not trust every spirit but put spirits to the test to find out whether they are of God, for many would-be prophets came into the world.
2 Here is how to identify the Spirit of God: any spirit that recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah come in man is of God.
3 And if a spirit does not recognize that Jesus is the Messiah come in man, it is not of God: it is the spirit of the Antichrist.
You have heard of his coming, and now he is already in the world.
4 You, little children, you are of God and you have overcome these so-called prophets because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world; that is why they speak according to the world and the world listens to them.
6 We are of God; he who knows God listens to us, he who is not of God does not listen to us.
This is how we identify the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

These 6 verses are precious because they invite us to reflect on:

Discern what spirit animates our life:
the Holy Spirit ?
the spirit of our time?
Obviously, our wish would be to be affirmative for the Holy Spirit, however, in fact, our discernment and our vigilance need to be sharpened to:

recognize what is false or what comes from God;
be encouraged to be vigilant, which will have the effect
to be a powerful encouragement to us
and inspires us to wonder at what God is doing for us.
Let it not stay in our heads but enter our hearts, our lives, our thoughts and our actions.
The apostle John here addresses a subject that may seem obvious to us.

The churches of the time

Yet at the time, church life was not centered on a Sunday gathering, but was much more like what we can share in home groups.

Itinerant teachers
Not having the New Testament with them, these groups were visited by people who presented themselves as servants of God and who taught and preached.

The task was all the more important for these assemblies, to be

either for the benefit of what was brought
either to denounce what was false.
From where all the epistles
We understand better the many letters, epistles that the Holy Spirit inspired to the apostles to establish the teaching already transmitted, to denounce what was not of God and which was conveyed by people, that the Word presents as false teachers.

What spirit or Spirit, for them as for us?
This text challenges us on what was at the source and which animated these false teachers.

It also asks us by ricochet to watch and to know what is the source, the Spirit (or the spirit) which animates our life.
Can we write it with a big capital “E” or a small and full of plurals?

In this text when it is spoken of spirit with a small “e”,

• it is the forces,
• the inspirations
  which were behind those who spoke, supposedly in the name of God.

How to discern them? In the original, it’s really the idea of ​​looking if it’s a coin that’s real or fake (counterfeit).

Two tests

To do this, this text gives us two tests:

one, theological, which touches the person of Christ;
the other on the effect it has on the community. Do these teachings bring people, the apostles, closer to Jesus?
Warning against the spirit of error.
1 John chapter 4 , verses 1 to 3
1 Beloved, do not trust any spirit but put spirits to the test whether they are of God, for many would-be prophets have come into the world.
2 Here is how to identify the Spirit of God: any spirit that recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah come in man is of God.
3 And if a spirit does not recognize that Jesus is the Messiah come in man, it is not of God: it is the spirit of the Antichrist.
You have heard of his coming, and now he is already in the world.

Not declaring Jesus, in the fact that He was incarnate, is an Antichrist position.

Two tendencies were already in germ at this time which will give several years later:

Docetism (Jesus was not a real human, He seemed to be some kind of spirit that seemed material, so He couldn’t die, He seemed to);
Cerinthianism (a real human, has his baptism, He would have been more, but that would have been erased before the cross).
The consequences are crucial, it is not finesse.
These two conceptions lead to the fact that ultimately Christ did not bear sin, and therefore did not have victory over the dead and over sin.

Subject still relevant in theology or thoughts

• Muslim,
• liberal theology and ideology,
• Jehovah’s Witnesses,
• myth, person having been overwhelmed by his popularity,
  this tends to make believe that Christ is not God incarnate in real life male.

Testimony of witnesses of the time
Many texts show us that the people who were in contact with Jesus understood that He was not only a man.

divine aspect

• For the Magi, it was obvious that the exception and the extraordinary were at the rendezvous, and that it was necessary to mount an expedition to Him,
• Nathanael under the fig tree,
• Thomas after the resurrection,
• the Samaritan
  did not see a prophet, but the Messiah, son of God.

human aspect

Fatigue, sleep, eating (even after the resurrection)…

they are of the world consequences: they speak according to the world, and the world listens to them.
he who is not of God, does not listen to us, not being of God, he listens to the spirit of error.
The Spirit of Truth

1 John chapter 4 , verses 1 & 4
2 Here is how to identify the Spirit of God: any spirit that recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah come in man is of God.

4 You, little children, you are of God and you have overcome these so-called prophets because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

So far the readers of John, the brethren, the little children have resisted the antichrists (so-called prophets) because they have Him in them (allusion to the Holy Spirit).

The Holy Spirit is more powerful than the one who is in this world, namely:
Satan: 1 John 5. 19-20 . We know that we are of God and that the whole world is under the power of evil, but we also know that the Son of God came and gave us intelligence to know the true God; and we are united with the true God if we are united with his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The prince of this world : John 12. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; it is now that the prince of this world will be cast out
The god of this age: 2 Corinthians 4. 4for unbelievers whose understanding the god of this world has blinded so that they do not see the glare which shines forth from the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The prince of the power of the air: Ephesians 2. 2 that you practiced in the past according to the way of life of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit which is now at work among rebellious men.

1 John chapter 4 , verses 1-6

6 We are of God; he who knows God listens to us, he who is not of God does not listen to us.
This is how we identify the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Vigilance (orange)
Discern, pay attention to what is said within us, our assembly, in our conversations as in meetings;

Discern also as to what I let my life say.

In this text, it is not just a question of those responsible but of the whole.

Encouragement
They have won, the mission is possible.

Wonder
“What is in them”, in context, here, the Holy Spirit is stronger than the one who animates the world, the Spirit of God stronger than Satan, no fatalism.

Application / conclusion

1) Invitation to live the truth in which we are led.
2) Place your faith, your trust, your hope, to watch over the type of spirit, influence, inspiration that nourishes us.
3) Sharpen our discernment to experience and know these influences.

What is my inspiration in the Church?
Anything that takes away from Christ at the center is to be proscribed and denounced.
Anything that captures attention, focus to the detriment of Christ is to be outlawed and denounced.