Anxiety, fear, insecurity, and failure.  Testing can bring out all these things.  But it can also reassure, bring relief, boost confidence, and create clarity.  As a child testing was a curious mix of anxiety and confidence.  I was a good test taker.  Both in having a solid grasp of the material and an effective strategy for test taking, I did well on most tests.  There were of course exceptions.

Typing was one of those.  I was a slow typist in a class where speed and accuracy were the metrics of success.  My father made me take typing because he foresaw that the keyboard would be the pen of my generation.  And he was exactly right!  But I was slow.  My motor memory and my hand-eye coordination were not great.  And this elective class threatened my GPA.  Graciously I could divide by 2 which in the day of the typewriter was necessary for centering and formatting.  My teacher made a deal.  If I would assist the other students with formatting, she would view my timed tests with a curved grace.

The other type of tests that tested me sorely were lab tests.  Academics were cut and dried, but lab work never seemed to produce the expected results in the expected quantities.  On paper, I knew the math and chemistry.  But lab tests tested me severely.  We all have some type of testing that tests us, that creates anxiety, fear and uncertainty.  But even those tests when successfully navigated and completed bring confidence, certainty and clarity.

The churches of Asia Minor were facing uncertainty, fear, and insecurity at the hands of false teachers who were testing their commitment to the teaching of the Apostles about the person and work of Christ and proper fellowship in the Church.  And so, to move them to confidence, assurance and clarity, the Apostle John writes them a series of tests to teach them how to grow the assurance of their faith as they learn to abide in Christ.  John’s tests were theological, moral, and social. 

The theological test was to trust in the Apostolic witness as the source of truth about the person and work of Christ.  The moral test was to live a transformed life in obedience to the commandments of Christ not the pattern of the world.  And the social test was to love our brothers, not just in word and talk, but in deed and in truth.  But in addition to the tests John applies to his “little flock” he challenges them to test the false teachers who have caused so much trouble.

John reminds the believers that God has caused his Holy Spirit to indwell them.  And that this Holy Spirit gives them discernment to test false teachers and grade their test with clarity and certainty.  They are not only to discern and avoid the false teaching of the antichrists, but they are to call them out and expose them by putting them to a simple set of tests.  Test that show that what they teach is not from the Holy Spirit but the spirit of the age.

Who are you listening to?  Who is speaking into your life? Are you testing the spirits of those whose counsel you seek and follow?  How do you know you can trust what you are hearing?  And who are you listening to?  John warns us not only to test our theology, our behavior and our love, but to test the spirits who speak into our lives. 

Join us as we examine 1 John 4:1-6 and consider how to test the spirits that seek to guide us.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.