How Can You Spot a Fake?

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today you will walk in the devil’s territory. We don’t know much about the spirit world, other than it’s dangerous to be overly preoccupied with it and equally dangerous to dismiss it. The balance is found in focusing on what the Bible says.

John warns us to be aware of the spiritual battle raging around us. Just because someone says they are from the Lord doesn’t mean we should be quick to embrace what they teach. Be careful since many false teachers take their instructions from hell.

How do you know if someone is a child of God?

Test them: Welcome those who teach Jesus Christ as God-become-man. The teacher who denies this fact isn’t from God.

In 1 John, the heresy of the day was Gnosticism, which said God’s Spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him at Calvary. But Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was more than a remarkable child. His death on the cross was not just an ordinary death, and when He rose from the dead, He rose bodily.

When you deny the virgin birth, you destroy His death upon the cross for our sins and His bodily resurrection. You wreck the Christian faith. It’s a sure sign you’re listening to a false teacher. Don’t be taken in by their satanic teaching or by their lies. Ask for the Holy Spirit to teach you through His Word and protect you from the world.

The second test of whether someone belongs to God is, do they love other believers? Do they have a concern for others? Do they help as they can?

If you wonder how God is loving you, just look at Jesus on Calvary—you’ll find God’s love there. Jesus proved God’s love when He willingly laid down His life for us. (See Romans 5:6-8.) God loved you when you were still a sinner, completely lost and absolutely unlovely.

To be clear, God is love, but He can’t just open the back door of heaven and slip us in because He loves us. God is also holy and righteous. Our sin had to be dealt with because He always does what’s right. When God gave His Son to die on the cross for us, He paid the penalty for our sin, so now a holy God can reach down and save us.

God loved us first. He didn’t give His Son for us because we were attractive or good or because we promised to do something for Him. He loved us while we were at our worst. (See Romans 5:8.) He makes a way for us if we will take it. (See John 14:6.) You either come His way, or you can’t come at all.

This is so important to understand. God is love, but that doesn’t mean everything will work out alright for everyone, and we will ultimately all go to heaven. That is a perversion of grace. The truth is, the lost are going to a lost eternity, and the saved are going to a saved eternity.

Is life going to work out alright for you? It will if you come God’s way. God loved us so much that He gave His Son as a “mercy seat” for our sins. Come His way.

1. How aware are you of the spirit world which surrounds you?

2. Why is who Jesus was and what He did something false teachers reject?

3. If false teachers appeal to the flesh, what would true teaching appeal to?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee's complete teachings of 1 John 4:1-3 and 1 John 4:4-9.