1 John 4:1-6

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone forth into the world. Herein ye get to know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesseth Jesus as Christ come in flesh, is from God; and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus, is not from God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, whereof ye heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already. Ye are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. They are from the world; therefore from the world they talk, and the world hearkeneth to them. We are from God; he that is getting to know God hearkeneth to us; one who is not from God, hearkeneth not to us. From this we get to know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.”

1. The Apostle has just said that the Spirit begets in us the assurance that God abideth in us. And this suggests a warning. The Cerinthian heresy also had much to say about “the spirit”. It boasted a larger spirituality. Starting with the philosophical postulate of an irreconcilable antagonism between matter and spirit, it denied the possibility of the Incarnation and drew a distinction between Jesus and the Christ (see Introd., p. 157). Its spirit was not “the Spirit of Truth” but “a spirit of error,” and thus the necessity arises of “proving the spirits”. δοκιμάζειν, of “proving” or “testing” a coin (νόμισμα). If it stood the test, it was δόκιμον (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:18); if it was found counterfeit (κίβδηλον), it was ἀφόκιμον (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5-7). Cf. Jeremiah 6:30 LXX: ἀργύριον ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον … ὅτι ἀπεδοκίμασεν αὐτοὺς Κύριος. ἐκ, here of commission, not parentage; “from God,” as His messengers. Cf. John 1:24; John 18:3; Soph., O.C., 735 737: ἀπεστάλην … οὐκ ἐξ ἑνὸς στείλαντος. πολλοί : Cerinthus had a large following. ἐξεληλ. εἰς τ. κόσμ., a monstrous reversal of John 17:18. They went forth from the Church into the world not to win but to deceive it.

2. The Test of the Spirits. γινώσκετε, as in 1 John 2:29, may be either indicat. (“ye recognise”) or, like πιστεύετε, δοκιμάζετε, imperat. (“recognise”). The former seems preferable. ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα, “confesseth Jesus as Christ come in flesh,” an accurate definition of the doctrine which the Cerinthian heresy denied. The argument is destroyed by the false variant ἐληλυθέναι, “confesseth that Jesus Christ hath come,” confitetur Jesum Christum in carne venisse (Vulg.)