In the Bible, 1 John 4 is known for declaring Jesus as God in the flesh and describing a relationship of true love with Him. However, it also instructs us on how to know what His love looks like. It begins by revealing that we must examine what people tell us because not everyone is in reciprocity with His Spirit.
“My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
1 John 4:1-6 (MSG)
Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world’s language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.”
What Is Reciprocity?
Simply put, reciprocity in our relationship with Him means it has a healthy foundation (faith in the Word of God), a mutual exchange where both parties give and receive (action based on that faith), and a balance in the level of effort given to strengthen the relationship. When these are not enacted in our own personal relationships, someone will feel taken advantage of, and it may even lead to resentment.
Jesus put it this way after those in the synagogue at Capernaum murmured because He said He was the bread that came down from heaven, and He had just left a multitude who were there only for His miracles. They questioned, isn’t that Jospeh’s son, and we know His father and mother. How can He say, “I came down from Heaven?”(see John 6:41-70). He declares His divinity and rebukes them, saying, “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood you have no life in you.” That is reciprocity; that is true love.
Let’s entertain the thought that He admonished them for having no faith in His words yet had faith in their actions of performing the Law. Their faith was misplaced, and the relationship of everlasting life with the only One who could provide it was imbalanced. His New Testament, after His death, would usher in the Law of Liberty and fulfillment of the Law, and they could not understand by the Spirit what He was there for.
Who should we listen to then? Let’s consider that there are currently more than 200 Christian denominations in the U.S. and a whopping 45,000+ denominations around the world. So who’s got it right? Who are false prophets sitting in the synagogue of sin, whether in a church, online, with our family members, in the arts and entertainment industry, the media, or anywhere there is a spirit of influence? Only the Spirit of God has it right, and 1 John 4 tells us how to ensure we are under a voice being led by His spirit. Test them by seeing if they openly confess their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came down as an actual flesh-and-blood person. That He was from God and belongs to God. If they talk in the world’s language, the world will love them. However, a person who has nothing to do with God will not listen to those under the Spirit of Truth and are under the spirit of deception.
God is love. If we love Him, we will experience a relationship (reciprocity) with Him, but are we meeting the expectations of Jesus? Can we say, “I love God,” and still hate our brothers and sisters? No. We must forgive them for what they do, strive to better ourselves and our relationship with Him, and thank Him daily for His grace and mercy that triumphs over all. He is a merciful King and must be granted all glory and honor as our first love because He first loved us!
Blessings and honor,
Angela Errett
Feature Image: Hearts on water GENAI Text to Image | Scripture quotations are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible.; Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
