This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist… (1 John 4:2-3a).

After a prolonged tiring wrestle to understand the verb “acknowledge” in our 1 John passage, I took a break and watched the leftover-from-the-night-before half of the documentary The Freedom Riders.

That turned out to be not just a break, but an opportunity to gain insight into “acknowledge.”

The Freedom Riders tells the 1961 story of groups of young black and white men and women who embarked on dangerous interstate bus journeys into the land of Jim Crow segregation and violence. They met that violence with non-violent resistance practices they had learned prior to their mission. 

The result of their harrowing experience and the non-violent way they faced it was vast. It began with the institution of previously passed interstate transportation laws that some states had refused to enforce. Due to that, life-giving change came to the lives of thousands of Black U.S. citizens. 

Here—from observers—are some words of acknowledgement regarding those young people: “They had the courage inside themselves, …they found something larger than themselves, …they signed on for life, …they weren’t going to pass their responsibility off to anyone else.” 

When we know their story, we recognize these acknowledgements were made in a spirit of truth.

If someone had acknowledged those who beat and imprisoned the Freedom Riders as being brave and fighting for a just cause, we would recognize that as anti-truth, anti-righteousness, anti-justice, and definitely not made in a spirit of truth.

It was the Godly Good Jesus Was and the Godly Good Jesus Did that verified His identity as God in the flesh to John’s audience and to us. The Spirit of God who acknowledges that reality is trustworthy. 

No trustworthy spirit could acknowledge Jesus Christ as being and doing anything dishonest, hateful, or bigoted. A spirit that would attempt to do that would be antichrist.

The Freedom Riders were named accurately. They were willing to nonviolently give their own lives to free people from the sin of segregation. We acknowledge them for this.

Jesus was intent upon nonviolently giving His own life to free all people from their sin. We acknowledge Him for this.

To acknowledge is not just to tip one’s hat to Jesus. It is not to just repeat a creed—although that can have merit. It is to acknowledge that there is vast evidence to support the Spirit of God’s message that Jesus was God in the flesh, and to then wholeheartedly acknowledge that He is.

Today you may want to sing There is None Like You (a praise song) and/or Praise Him, Praise Him (a hymn) as a way of acknowledging Jesus as God in the flesh.