Memorizing and Meditating on Scripture is one of the most important spiritual discipline's God has made available to us. We want you so filled immersed in Scripture that when life cuts you, what you bleed is the Word of God. Check out this devotional to help you toward this goal.

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

“Ok, to fully understand this verse, we’ll have to figure out the pronouns. The only one John defines for us is “you”, the children of God. But who is “them” or “the one”? Let’s go back to verses 1 & 3:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world; 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

In his classic commentary, Matthew Henry defines “them” as the “seducing anti-Christian spirit”. At the time of John’s writing, false teachers had come into the church denying the incarnation of Christ teaching that Jesus was God, but that He was not fully human. This is anti- Christian. An excerpt from David Guzik Bible Commentary, the Enduring Word, explains it this way:

“To deny the true Jesus is the basis of the spirit of the Antichrist. It is the spirit which both opposes the true Jesus and offers a substitute Jesus. The devil doesn’t care at all if you know Jesus or love Jesus or pray to Jesus – as long as it is a false Jesus, a make-believe Jesus, a Jesus who is not there, and who therefore cannot save.”

But the most troubling word of Matthew Henry’s definition is “seducing”. This anti-Christian spirit is seductive or alluring to the world – why? Because fits better into the world’s view of how things should work rather than having faith in the true Jesus that is taught in Scripture.

Now here’s the good news – “You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” I John 4:4 Who is “the one in you”? The Holy Spirit!

Who is “the one who is in the world”? Satan. That, my friends, is a statement of victory! The Holy Spirit dwelling in each one of us will always be greater, stronger and mightier than the evil one and his antichrists and can help us overcome every lie and every act of persecution against our Christian faith the world throws at us.

So, let’s memorize this verse so that we can stand firm while the world is telling us that the Jesus is a myth and the Gospel is nonsense. Memorize this verse and know that we, the children of God, have the victory!