Testing teaching and spiritual discernment

13 If someone among you claims to be a prophet or interpreter of dreams, or able to do miracles, 2 and it seems true, but they use those things to convince you to go after other ‘new’ gods and worship them, 3 then don’t listen to that person, because your god Yahweh is testing you to know whether you love him with sincerity and with your energy. 4 You must conduct your lives as your god Yahweh wants you to. Honour him, and listen to his voice and follow his instructions, and serve him and remain loyal to him. 5 But that prophet or interpreter of dreams must be executed because they’ve incited rebellion against your god Yahweh who brought you all out from slavery in Mitsrayim (Egypt). Those kinds of people want to drive you away from @Yahweh’s instructions, hence why you must remove that evil from among you.

15 “Watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside they’re swindling wolves. 16 You people will know who they are if you observe their fruit. Does anyone pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Similarly, every good tree produces good fruit, but the bad tree produces evil fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.[ref] 20 So then, you’ll know the false teachers by observing their fruit.[ref]

21 “Not everyone who goes around calling me ‘master’ will enter the heavenly kingdoms—only those who actually do what my father who lives in the heavens wants. 22 Many people will complain on judgement day saying, ‘Master, master, didn’t we prophesy using your name, and exorcise demons using your name, and do many miracles using your name?’ 23 Then I’ll have to tell them, ‘I don’t even know you. Go away from me, all of you whose behaviour is against God’s laws.’[ref]

10 So the believers immediately sent Paulos and Silas off during the night to go to Beroia. In Beroia they also attended at the Jewish meeting hall 11 and this group were more upper-class than the congregation in Thessalonikai. They eagerly accepted the message and examined the scriptures every day to check if what was being taught matched what was written there. 12 Because it did, many of the people believed including quite a few of the prominent Hellains (Greeks).

6 I’m astounded that you people have so quickly replaced the good message that you heard from the one who called you to the messiah’s grace. You’ve replaced it with another narrative 7 which is not at all another good message, but rather comes from those who are confusing you and wanting to alter the actual good message about the messiah. 8 Even if either we ourselves or even a messenger from heaven were to preach a different ‘good message’ which disagrees with the good message that we first preached to you, then they should be cursed. 9 As we’ve previously said, and even now say it again: if anyone preaches a ‘good message’ to you that’s different from what you already heard, let that person be cursed.

10 Am I trying to please and persuade people or God? If I was still trying to please people, I wouldn’t be worthy to be one of the messiah’s slaves.

6 So in the same way that you all received the messiah, Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the master, keep living in him. 7 You’ve already been rooted in him and then built up and confirmed in the faith just as all of you were taught, and been very thankful.

8 Be careful in case anyone captures your minds with fancy ideas or theories without proof that come from human traditions or from worldly thinking, and not from Messiah. 9 Every component of the greatness of God lives in his human body, 10 and you also have been completed and are in him. He is the head of all rule and authority.

4 Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit, but test them to determine whether or not it’s from God, because many false prophets go around the world. 2 You all can find out whether or not a spirit is from God: If the spirit confesses that Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the messiah has come as a person, then it’s from God 3 but if the spirit won’t confess Yeshua, then it’s not from God but rather it’s the spirit of the false messiah, whom you’ve heard is coming, and is now already in the world.

4 You new believers are in God and you have defeated the false prophets, because the one in you is more powerful than the one in the world. 5 They belong to the world hence they are speaking from the world, and the world is listening to them. 6 However we belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, but anyone who doesn’t belong to God can’t accept what we’re saying. That’s how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from deceptive spirits.