XXXV. THE TEST OF MANY ANTICHRISTS
HAVING COME—1 JOHN 2:18
The antichrists deny that Jesus is the Christ (v. 22). The believers should abide in the Lord according to His anointing (vv. 20, 27). To take care of this case of heresy, we need the experience of abiding in the Lord according to His anointing, and we should charge the believers not to listen to the heretical teaching, but to take care of the inner anointing.
XXXVI. THE TEST OF THE SPIRIT THAT
DOES NOT CONFESS JESUS CHRIST HAVING COME
IN THE FLESH—1 JOHN 4:1-6
This again is a case of heresy. The spirit in this case is not out of God but is of the antichrist; it is not the Spirit of truth but the spirit of deception. The antichrists are out of the world; the believers are out of God. The believers have overcome the false prophets in verse 1 and the antichrist in verse 3, because greater is He who is in the believers than he who is in the world.
To confront such a case of heresy, we need the experience of 1) the Triune God as the all-inclusive, anointing Spirit, who is in us, being greater than Satan as the evil spirit who is in the world, and 2) the world having been overcome by us through the indwelling Triune God.
XXXVII. THE TEST OF A BELIEVER SEEING
A BROTHER SINNING A SIN NOT UNTO DEATH—
1 JOHN 5:16
He should ask, that is, pray, for the sinning one. By so doing, he will give life to such a one. To give life to such a one is to minister life to the sinning one in our contacting of him. This requires us to have a certain amount of the divine love to care for the sinning one, and to have a certain degree of growth in the divine life that we may have the riches of the divine life to share with him.
(Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (2), Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
