“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 NIV
In saying, “You are from God”, John is pointing again to the new birth. Christianity is not just a matter of subscribing to certain creeds or correct doctrines, although that is essential. It is a matter of being born of God so that you receive new life from Him and become His child. This new birth is essential if we want to be able to understand and hold to the truth. This is so important that John repeats this phrase “from God”. By way of contrast, the false teachers and those who follow them are “from the world”. Without the new birth, a person is incapable of understanding or obeying God’s truth. Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews (John 8:43, 47), “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word . . . He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” Jesus was using the word “hear” in the same way that John uses the word “listen”. It refers to hearing in the sense of both understanding and obeying the truth. By “overcoming them”, John means that his hearers have resisted the false teaching. The reason that they have overcome is not only that they are from God, but also that with the new birth, they also received the Holy Spirit who indwells them. He is greater than he who is in the world, Satan, who inspires the false teachers. Even though the Gnostic teachers may have been intellectually superior to John’s “little children”, the presence of the indwelling Spirit gave his readers the ability to discern and thus avoid the errors of the false teachers.
PRAYER THOUGHT
Lord, thank You that we can resist false teachers through Your Spirit.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your indwelling presence giving us the ability to discern and avoid the errors of the false teachers. AMEN
I.B.R.A. Readings
Philippians 1:1-11
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