Who do you listen to?

1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, 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. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
(1 John 4:1-6)

The message in this passage from John's letter is fairly simple. Be careful who you listen to. The world does not have all the answers. It seems that the world believes that to be happy you need to have money, status, and power. Who you know is more important than who you are as a loving, caring, person. The world judges success by the size of your bank account, rather than by the size of your heart.

But as John says, we Christians are really not of the world. We believe that loving one another is the way we should live. We should share what we have with one another. Our symbol of love and success is the cross. Our model of the successful person is Jesus who died for us out of love.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies which is certainly not the way of the world. But in the long run, all the money, power, and success will not last. What will last is the loving power of God, the redeeming power of Jesus, the inspirational power of the Holy Spirit. That is where real success lies.

So, who will you listen to?

Peace and love,

Sue


"Be still and know that I am God"(Psalm 46:10)