Do not trust every inspiration
1 My beloved, do not trust every inspiration. Test the spirits to see whether they come from God, because many false prophets are now in the world.
2 How will you recognize the spirit of God? Any spirit recognizing Jesus as the Christ who has taken our flesh is of God.
3 But any spirit that does not recognize Jesus is not from God, it is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard of his coming and even now he is in the world.
4 You, my dear children, are of God and you have already overcome these people, because the one who is in you is more powerful than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world and the world inspires them and those of the world listen to them.
6 We are of God and those who know God listen to us, but those who are not of God ignore us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error as well.
God-Love is the source of love
7 My dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love.
9 How did the love of God appear among us? God sent his only Son into this world that we might have life through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God but that he first loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love comes to its perfection in us.
13 How may we know that we live in God and he in us? Because God has given us his Spirit.
14 We ourselves have seen and declare that the Father sent his Son to save the world.
15 Those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them and they in God.
16 We have known the love of God and have believed in it. God is love. The one who lives in love, lives in God and God in him.
17 When do we know that we have reached a perfect love? When in this world, we are like him in everything, and expect with confidence the Day of Judgment.
18 There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives away fear, for fear has to do with punishment; those who fear do not know perfect love.
19 So let us love one another, since he loved us first.
20 If you say, “I love God,” while you hate your brother or sister, you are a liar. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother whom you see?
21 We received from him this commandment: let those who love God also love their brothers.
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Comments Letter of Jude, Chapter 4
• 4.1 John underlined the role of the Holy Spirit to guide us in the truth, but now he is dealing with the case of the prophets who do not speak according to the faith received from the apostles through the Church.
There have always been conflicts between those in authority and those who speak freely. It should be clear that no inspired person would ever be able to speak against the traditional faith of the Church. What if it deals with ways of being or doing in the Church? Must we always support the people in charge in all circumstances? That would be to forget that the Gospel forms free people. We must never blindly follow the opinion of the pope, or the bishop, or the majority. It is our responsibility to think for ourselves and to evaluate according to the criteria of the Gospel.
Can we then favor those who seem to be guided by the Spirit? If the Holy Spirit really inspires them, however much they may criticize what must be criticized, they will never attempt to divide the Church. The community may expel them, but they will not become responsible for the break. Even when the local community rejects them, they will never be willing to separate themselves from the universal communion of the Church, which, with time, always recognizes true prophets.
• 7. Here we have the beginning of the third part of the letter: God-Love is the source of love and faith.
God is love (vv. 8and 16). The supreme revelation, character is tic of the Christian faith. Other reli gions know of a God who is good and compassionate: no other religion has known that the dynamism of love moves the en tire creation and that its source lies in God-Love.
In this beautiful text John insists on the inseparability of love of God and love of our neighbor. We all know this, but sometimes we might wonder why it is so. John gives us the paramount reason; love comes from God (v. 7). If we can love God, it is because God loved us first (v. 10); if we love each other it is because God’s love extends among us (v. 12).
John also links love of God and faith in God: a true Christian believer is somebody who begins by “believing in God’s love, and that God is love” (4:16).
He loved us first (v. 10): through his eternal predestination (Eph 1:4), the sending of his Son and through his sacrifice (Rom 5:8). If we are authentically loving, we never feel superior nor that we have merits, as do those who boast of their good works. We simply realize that the love of God works through us.
The lives of those who dedicate themselves lovingly to serving the abandoned, the sick, the elderly, and those no longer useful to society are justified and so are the lives of those who withdraw from ordinary life to dedicate themselves more totally to a more intimate love of God.