Saint John gives us a wise piece of advice today, when he advises us not to trust every spirit, because there are false prophets in the world: False prophets like the ones Saint Paul warned Saint Timothy about, those who would try to seduce us into following something other than the Gospel.
So what does Saint John tell us to do? Simple: he tells us, “test the spirits to see whether they belong to God.” But how do we test the spirits? How do we find out what’s true and what’s false, what’s God’s will and what’s not?
The test John gives us is simplicity itself: “every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God.”
So when someone is trying to convince of us something, there’s a real simple question: Is it of Jesus or not?
If someone tries to convince me that just getting enough money will make us happy. Is that of Jesus or not?
If someone tries to convince me that the poor are just an inconvenience to be avoided and that we have no obligation to help them. Is that of Jesus or not?
If someone tries to convince me that all immigrants are bad people and we should not care about them. Is that of Jesus or not?
If someone tries to convince me that I should never again talk to that person who hurt me. Is that of Jesus or not?
If someone tries to convince us that that going to confession is just old fashioned. Is that of Jesus or not?
Lots of false prophets are about these days, my friends. And all kinds of temptations. But if we take Saint John’s advice, we can test each one of them with the simple question: Is that of Jesus or not?
