St. John reminds us in his epistle that not everyone who claims to be acting according to the Spirit of God is doing so. People fly airplanes into buildings in the name of God. Some claim they won’t take the virus because of God. St. John tells us: do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God. What is the test? How do you tell is someone is truly heeding the Spirit of God? The criterion in the epistle: This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God. If God chose to share humanity we must treat every human being as possessing divinity.
