Bible Synapse
If whoever confesses that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, what of the demons who called him the Son of God?
Hard question · Salvation and the Christian life · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Test the spirits, because of false prophets: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; loving God means keeping his commandments.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Unclean spirits fell down before Jesus and cried, “Thou art the Son of God”; he charged them not to make him known.
And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.
The spirit in the possessed man cried, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?” and begged not to be tormented.
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
“The devils also believe, and tremble.”
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
The objection
John says that whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God dwelling in him, and that whoever believes Jesus is the Christ is born of God. But in Mark the unclean spirits cry out that Jesus is the Son of God, and James says the devils believe. By John’s test, the demons would be children of God.
The answer
John’s words describe a confession and a faith of a particular kind, and the demons’ words were neither. To ‘confess’ (homologeō, literally ‘to say the same thing’, to agree or acknowledge) is to declare something openly as one’s own conviction and to take one’s stand on it. In 1 John the word belongs to the church’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh (2:22-23; 4:2, 15), made by people who love God and keep his commandments. The very verse that says “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” goes on to speak of love for God and his children, and adds “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (5:1-3). Throughout the letter, believing, loving and obeying belong together (3:23-24).
The demons in Mark knew who Jesus was, but they did not trust or obey him. Their cries were cries of fear and hostility: “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us?” (1:24) and “I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not” (5:7). Jesus did not accept their testimony; he silenced them (1:25; 3:12). James makes the same distinction: to believe facts about God, as the devils do, is not saving faith, for they “believe, and tremble” (2:19).
John’s test in 4:1-3 also has a narrower purpose. It is for weighing the “spirits” behind prophets in the church, because false teachers were denying “that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”. It tells the church which teaching comes from God. It does not say that any creature who utters the right words is thereby born of God.
Other answers Christians give
A test of teaching, not of persons
Some commentators, such as John Gill, stress that 1 John 4:2 judges the doctrine a spirit or prophet brings: a teaching that confesses Christ come in the flesh is from God. On 4:15 he adds that a bare assent to it does not make anyone a child of God.
From the classic commentators
for the devils believed and owned that Jesus was the Son of God; and so might, and did, unregenerate persons, as the centurion at the cross of Christ, who know nothing what communion with God is; but this confession is such as is attended with a believing in Christ from the heart unto righteousness, life, and salvationJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on 1 John 4 (1746–1763)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 1 John 4 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 John 4, at Bible Hub
- Thayer’s Greek Lexicon: homologeō (Strong’s G3670), at Bible Hub