My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. (19) And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. (20) For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (21) Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. (22) And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. (23) And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. (24) Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
1 John was written by the apostle John, who also wrote one of the gospels. Our verses give us guidelines to watch for false teachers who adopt Christian terminology but they are not Christian. They begin subtly to veer from truth to justify their sin and deny Scripture. They may love the acclaim of being popular or may seek financial reward. There has never been a perfect church – even the early church had gone through the damage of false teachers. John warns his readers to beware of anyone who breaks from the true church to form a new group with new theology; those who abandon core Christian truth or deviate from orthodox Christian doctrine on major issues.
We need to think biblically on some issues. John was more concerned about purity of doctrine than he was about church growth or unity. We are not to measure a church’s success by the number who attend but rather by its faithfulness to the truth of the gospel. The faithful have been anointed with the indwelling Spirit. Sound doctrine and spiritual knowledge is not restricted to some elite inner circle but is inextricably linked with a personal relationship with God. A major theme throughout the New Testament is that God’s people need to develop discernment so they can avoid spiritual deception. We should beware of any that leave the church with new theology or offer new truth that others have missed. We should also be discerning of doctrine – to avoid spiritual deception by abiding in the Word (Bible) and by the guidance of the Spirit.
The point of our verses is the gospel is NOT the result of philosophic speculation or mystical revelation. It is the witness to Jesus Christ Himself written in the New Testament by men who had seen the risen Lord. The gospel introduces us to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Learning to listen with discernment means you begin to recognize the voice of God so well that other voices sound unfamiliar..