Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

4:1 do not believe every spirit. Christian faith is not spiritual gullibility. test the spirits. The unseen spiritual influences that guide people's speech and actions can be "tested" by observing their doctrine and conduct as well as by the gift of spiritual discernment (cf. 1 Cor. 12:10; 14:29). False prophets are people who claim to speak for God but are actually speaking by demonic influence (1 John 4:3-4). In today's age of "tolerance," discriminating discernment can be viewed as being judgmental (cf. "Judge not," Matt. 7:1). Yet Jesus also taught, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24).

4:2 By this you know. John establishes a doctrinal standard, specifically a Christological one, for testing spirits (see v. 1). If a spirit (or a person moved to speak by such a spirit) does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that spirit or person is misleading God's people. Apparently many false teachers were saying that Jesus only "appeared" to be human. This was probably based on a false idea that the material creation was inherently evil and therefore physical bodies were evil.

4:3 every spirit that does not confess Jesus. That is, whoever refuses to acknowledge that Jesus is God the Son, "who has come in the flesh" (v. 2). Anyone can talk about Jesus and even believe that he lived on earth, as other religions, cults, and philosophies often affirm. But unless such people affirm both the full deity and the full humanity of Jesus, they are not truly "confessing Jesus," but, as John states in unequivocal terms, they are under the influence of the spirit of the antichrist.

4:4 he who is in you. The Holy Spirit (see vv. 2, 6). he who is in the world. Satan and, by implication, his demons (cf. v. 3; 5:19).

4:5 They are from the world . . . the world listens to them. Jesus himself did not convince most leaders of his time (John 7:48; Acts 4:26), and even the common people who followed him were often fickle (John 6:66). they speak from the world. Their speech originates from and is empowered by the world's viewpoint and values.

4:6 does not listen to us. People who are not true believers resist sound doctrine. It does not make sense to them and does not fit their man-centered, materialistic system of thought (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14).