Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:1-6
The spirit of the antichrist is here and now, not to be reserved for the “last days.” John clarifies that the spirit of antichrist is something we have to deal with now in the present tense. It will continue to be a problem until “that day” when all evil will be judged and done away with, never to enter the New Heaven and New Earth.
You can’t believe everything you hear is an old saying and is more true today than ever. It doesn’t take long on the internet, especially on social media, to realize the truth of this old adage. John commands us not to believe every spirit but to test what is being said.
Modern Western Christians miss a significant point here. We in the West have mainly been materialists and don’t have a category for spirits as reality in our lives. But to be Biblically sound Christians, we must understand the place of spirits in our world. John is telling us to test the spirits rather than the doctrine, even though the teaching is how we test the spirits. Paul gives us a similar pattern in 1 Corinthians.
You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:2-3
Here, we can tell whether or not one is speaking by the Spirit of God or some other spirit by the content of their speech: the same principle espoused by John.
John references false prophets in the world. Specifically, he dealt with the gnostic heresy that believed, among other things, that the material world is evil and the spiritual world is good. This produced the false teaching that the Christ was the spiritual and good part of Jesus and wasn’t really a man of human flesh. Flesh bad, spirit good.
This teaches two truths: we can judge the truth of a teacher by what he teaches, and that teaching is the product of a spirit, either a demon or the Spirit of God. So, John is telling us that anyone teaching that Jesus is less than fully human and fully God at the same time is of the spirit of antichrist. That applies to every teaching that denies who Jesus is. The teachings that fall under the spirit of antichrist are innumerable all across the globe.
We need not fear the antichrist spirit.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them (the gnostic false teachers), for he who is in you (the Spirit of God) is greater than he who is in the world (the spirit of antichrist).
1 John 4:4
We who are born of the Spirit have overcome the false teachers and their spirit of antichrist. We need not fear them.
Another way of stating the standard by which we judge or discern false teaching and false spirits is whether or not they adhere to the Apostolic teaching, John’s editorial “we” in this passage. This is the key to identifying the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Be faithful to the Apostolic teaching, also known as the New Testament, and you will not fall prey to the spirit of antichrist. There is no need to worry about 666 or any other tokens of prophetic fearmongering that sell books and movies and get clicks.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
