Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1
A new kind of fishing line came out a few years ago, and it was supposed to be better than regular line. The premise was that fish would not be able to see it underwater. I read about it in an article in a fishing magazine, and the author really bragged up a certain brand of this fishing line. He acknowledged that a drawback to the new product was that it was weak under stress, so the knot string would break easily, but he said that this particular brand did not break even under extreme stress.
The line cost quite a bit of money, but I bought a spool because I was excited to try it. I went out on a river where there was salmon, made a few drifts, and hooked one. My line broke after a few moments. I thought that might have been a fluke, so I tied another one. I broke several fish off. In fact, I noticed that even when I just snagged the bottom of the river and gave it a couple tugs, the line would break.
Confused about what had happened, I thought maybe I just got a bad spool. I went back to the sporting goods store and asked a couple of men behind the counter what they thought of the new line. They started to chuckle. When I told them I had read an article and the author wrote about how strong it was, they said, “Who do you think he works for?” I thought about that.
We have to remember that not everything we hear is true. Sometimes I listen to different ministers on the radio. Many of them will sound good at first, like they really know what they are talking about. But then they say something about how we cannot live without sinning, and I know they are incorrect because the Bible says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Why would they preach a lie? The Bible has an answer for that also—Jesus said, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Many people do not want to hear that they can live without sinning because that would make them feel guilty about how they are living. They want to hear that they can continue in sin and still go to Heaven.
Our focus verse warns us, “Many false prophets are gone out into the world.” This is why we must try the spirits to see if they are of God. John 17:17 gives us a good way to know what we can believe: it tells that God’s Word is truth. If something we hear does not match up with the Bible, it is simply not true.
Let’s be careful about what we believe!