Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
John has just told his readers that God gave them His Spirit. Now he warns them: not every spiritual-sounding voice comes from God. Many false prophets are already at work, and ordinary believers — not officials — are the ones told to test them.
The order matters. The warning comes right after John mentions the Spirit given to believers.
At the end of 1 John 3 John mentions the Holy Spirit given to believers, and by this we know that God dwells in us. Right afterwards we find the work of the enemy: he sends many false prophets into the world, and we must test the spirits. Ever since the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the enemy's tactics have been those of spiritual imposture.
Where God gives something real, a counterfeit follows.
If God, in virtue of redemption, was pleased to give the Holy Spirit to the Christian in a measure and way which was not and could not be before Christ's death, resurrection and ascension, Satan set himself to counterfeit the heavenly gift, and thwart the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The verse does not ask you to decide whether a man is saved. It asks something narrower.
The task is not to work out who is a Christian. It is to discern the real character of those who claimed to speak in the Spirit. The enemy imitated that, and his power of subtle persuasion has been great ever since man's first temptation in the garden of Eden.
John writes of "spirits" rather than speakers, and that wording carries weight.
Here we learn that there are many false prophets who speak in the power of the spirit of error (literally, deceit). In all affection we are therefore urged to test the spirits. Of course we must believe that there are spirits. And men who preach by them are, in God's sight, identified with them — a fact of appalling solemnity.
John does not hand this task to a few experts.
He appeals to every saint on his faith in Christ and in the word of God. He clears away all the polished reasoning and sentiment the enemy used to hide what was really at stake… They knew the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent, and they had the Spirit to help them. So, as simple children of God, they were responsible to prove what kind of spirit was at work in these new teachers — and by grace they were able to.
The duty reaches beyond those who teach.
The whole family of God are urged not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits… Those who hear, as well as those who teach, need to take heed. Responsibility rests on all sides, and no one can escape it.
The next verse gives the test: confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh. That means owning the Person, not just agreeing with a fact of history.
Demons freely admitted that He had come in the flesh. But they never owned Him, and that makes an enormous difference. The government of a country would admit that a pretender had landed, but they would not own him. A rebel might admit that the king had come, when he could not help it. But owning him was another thing. That made a loyal subject.
A common instinct is to trust a teacher because he seems good. Commentators warn that this replaces Scripture's authority with a man's reputation.
Do not let yourselves be misled by the common thought that men of God could not teach what is false. That sets a man's goodness up against the truth of the word of God… If you take men's goodness as security for their doctrine, you cannot do it.
Nor by the speaker's ability:
Suppose someone speaks by an evil spirit. He may be learned, his words may be eloquent, his tone may seem moral — yet in some form or other he will degrade Christ. Suppose someone speaks by the Holy Spirit. His words may be simple and he may be unlearned — yet he will exalt Christ.
John says the false prophets went out "into the world" — and the world receives them gladly.
"Test the spirits!" is now the call. Since God gave the Holy Spirit, the enemy has tried in many ways to imitate His power and action, so we must put everything to the proof. One must not believe every spirit. As we have often noticed, the false prophets are always more popular than the true ones. There were many prophets of Baal in Elijah's time, and many are now gone out into the world.
- Gift — God gave His Spirit to believers. The warning about false prophets comes right after, because the enemy's method since Pentecost has been imitation.
- Counterfeit — Behind a preacher stands a spirit. God identifies the man with the spirit he speaks by. The question is not whether he is a Christian, but what speaks through him.
- Command — "Beloved" — the testing is laid on every believer. Those who hear are as responsible as those who teach, and grace makes even the simplest child of God able to do it.
- Criterion — The Person of Christ decides it. Demons admitted that He had come. Owning Him is another thing, and that is what marks the loyal subject.
- Caution — Never test by a man's goodness, learning or eloquence. Test by the Word, and watch whether Christ is exalted or degraded.
Hereby ye know the Spirit of God every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God;
John writes to people surrounded by voices that all claim to speak for God. He gives them one test: what does the voice do with Jesus Christ? The whole test rests on one Person. So what does it mean to "confess" Him — and is agreeing to a historical fact enough?
Much turns on how the sentence is read. One writer uses an older translation that reads "confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh," without the extra words most English Bibles add. He argues that the common wording turns a test of the Person into a test of information:
The first test concerns the Spirit. "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God." The common rendering fails to give its real force. Adding "that" and "is" is not only uncalled for; it makes the words a mere confession of a fact. But the apostle's words mean the confession of His Person. Would an evil spirit deny the historical fact that Jesus Christ has come in flesh? Some of the most extreme and harmful sceptics allow the fact, and praise the Lord in their own way as the best of men. But no one truly confesses the Person of the Lord, as the apostle sets it out here, except by the Spirit of God.
after_note: DELETE
Another writer sets admitting a fact about someone against owning that person:
Demons had no trouble admitting that He had come in the flesh, but they never owned Him. That makes an enormous difference. The government of a country would admit that a pretender had landed, but they would not own him. A rebel might admit that the king had come, when he could not help it. But owning him was another thing. That is what made a loyal subject.
The short phrase reaches in two directions at once:
The denial covers both His Deity and His Manhood. He came "in flesh," which shows He was indeed a Man. And He existed so as to "come" in that way, which shows He was more than Man — even God.
Commentators differ on how much the phrase proves by itself. One holds that it shows He existed before His birth, yet does not settle the question of deity:
Just to confess this fact would not be enough, for it does not imply His deity, as some have said. It does imply that He existed before His birth. But if He had been an archangel, you could still say that He came in flesh. The confession of this fact is not enough. The confession of His Person includes everything.
The verse had a concrete target in John's own day:
History tells us that one of the first heresies to trouble the early church is the one John is meeting here. It is called Docetism. It taught that matter was evil, so Christ could not have had a true human body of flesh and blood. His body only seemed to be real; it was in fact an illusion.
This one confession works as a sorting line. Making it would cost a deceiving spirit everything it stands on:
There is one thing that will reveal the true character of every spirit, and that is the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus Christ come in flesh. The real and perfect manhood of the Saviour, when the Word became flesh, is brought before us here... Their whole system depends on not recognising Jesus Christ come in flesh. If they did recognise Him, they would have to recognise the One to whom all authority has been given, and their own independent position would collapse.
The test is finer than a check for outright denial:
A definite test is given for proving the spirits — that is, Jesus Christ come in flesh. Every spirit that would take away even the smallest part of the divine or human glory of our Lord is not of God.
A teacher cannot hide on this point for long:
Of course no single book covers every line of truth, and with pamphlets and tracts this is even more the case. But take the speaker or writer who confesses "Jesus Christ come in the flesh." When he speaks or writes, he cannot fail to reveal that he is sound in this vital truth of Christianity.
- Confess a Person. The test is not agreeing with a fact about Jesus. It is owning Jesus Christ Himself. Sceptics and demons grant the fact and still fail.
- Confess both. "Come in flesh" says He was truly Man. That He came at all says He was more than Man. Writers differ on how far the phrase alone proves deity.
- Confess against the lie. John was answering the teaching that Christ's body only appeared to be real flesh and blood.
- Confess and lose your independence. No false spirit can make this confession, because it would mean bowing to the One who holds all authority.
- Confess or subtract. Anything that takes away the least part of His divine or human glory fails the test.