Do not trust every spirit

It is a reminder that cannot be given too often.

We must exercise discernment.

Today’s first reading (1 John 3:22-4:6) puts it simply:

Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits
to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

False prophets were a serious problem in the New Testament church – despite the presence of the Apostles, other eyewitnesses of Christ, and spectacular miracles.

False prophets have continued to afflict the People of God to this day, some of whom have led millions tragically astray.

John gives a number of guidelines for discernment: the most critical is orthodoxy, especially about the identity and reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: the definitive and infinite revelation of God.

Discernment, of course, is not simply a matter of judging teachers and theologians within the Church.

Discernment is also critically important outside the Church. In this political season, filled with smooth talking people going in different directions, we do well as citizens to follow John’s maxim: do not trust every spirit – carefully discerning and measuring the words and the people before us (keeping in mind, of course, that orthodoxy in Christology is not as critical a measure in choosing a secular leader).

False prophets, however, are not only to be found in the Church, in politics, in marketing, or anywhere in the world outside.

False prophets are at work also inside our skulls: thoughts, desires, rationalizations, and temptations that pull and push us this way and that.

It is therefore important for us to practice discernment constantly: testing every spirit, holding everything up to the standards of orthodoxy, measuring our behavior against the Commandments, and making sure that the fruits of the Holy Spirit continue to abide and grow within us.

Those who keep his commandments remain in him,
and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit whom he gave us.

Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how you can know the Spirit of God:
every spirit
that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God,
and every spirit
that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist
who, as you heard, is to come,
but in fact is already in the world.

You belong to God, children,
and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.

They belong to the world;
accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world,
and the world listens to them.

We belong to God,
and anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who does not belong to God
refuses to hear us.

This is how we know the spirit of truth
and the spirit of deceit.