Discernment of spirits

[Evangelical]

Originally Posted by JJ

God’s word is that further test, as ZNP pointed us to in Hebrews 4:12 and Proverbs (see Proverbs 2 and 4 links in my last post).

It's good advice for other things but for testing spirits it can lead to the wrong conclusion. Strictly speaking they are not tests of spirits but sound advice for right living. For example, Proverbs 2 is about what is right and wrong "Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous". Who are the righteous in these says other than those who keep the Law religiously? Who are the wicked other than those who break the Jewish law?

So a test which employs Jewish Old Testament law is not a good test of spirits. Without 1 John 4:2-3, 1 Cor 12:3, 1 John 4:15 , application of Proverbs 2 for testing the spirit could lead us to the conclusion that a devout and religious Jew has God's Spirit. Probably Jews concluded that even Christ was a sinner and unrighteous because he befriended the wicked, contrary to the advice of Proverbs 2.

1 John 4:2-3, 1 Cor 12:3, 1 John 4:15 say nothing about using God's word as a "further test". For example, 1 John 4:2-3 does not say "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, now use the Scripture to test it further". There's nothing to indicate that the tests are incomplete.