Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. 4Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6, NRSV)
Using this test is not that straight forward, because I have friends who are from God who would say some of the things I believe are not actually what God teaches, and I know I am from God. And yet we all confess that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of the world. So how does this work? I mean there are people who believe that those in the LGBTQ+ community are not Christians if they continue in that lifestyle, but my understanding is God loves us all as God created us. And again we all confess that Jesus is God in flesh.
We test the spirit by asking what would God do, How would God love in this space. An interesting cartoon I have seen several times is this one by nakedpastor. When we use the Bible to determine love we get it wrong.
We need to love as Jesus did, which means we do what is necessary regardless of the trouble we will get in.
Love as God loves!
aSacredRebel 