Chapter Four
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world.
1 John 4:2. Recognize the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error) in this way: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh is from God.
Having explained the teaching on love for one's neighbor, and having pointed to this love as a sign of the abiding of the Spirit whom we have received, the apostle now adds a criterion for distinguishing true brothers and neighbors, so that we, keeping this distinction in mind, might not on account of the commandment of love enter into close relations with false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets, and thereby cause ourselves great harm. For by having fellowship with them as though they were of like mind, we will, first, harm ourselves by fearlessly communicating the teaching of the faith to the impious and casting what is holy before dogs; then we will harm those who are entrusted to us. For our love toward false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets will dispose many to accept them as teachers and to believe their teaching without caution, since they will be led into deception by our association with them. What then is the sign by which they are recognized?
Next: every spirit, that is, everyone bearing the title of prophet or apostle, who confesses the Lord Jesus as having come in the flesh, is from God, and whoever does not confess this is not from God, but his dignity is from the antichrist, which you have also heard.
The Apostle a little above (1 John 2:18) said that many antichrists have appeared in the world, that is, forerunners of the antichrist. And the confession of Christ's coming in the flesh must be made not only with the tongue, but also in deeds, as the Apostle Paul says: "we always carry about in the body the dying... of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10). So then, whoever has Jesus working within him, has died to the world, no longer lives for the world but for Christ, and bears Him not only in Christ's flesh but also in his own, that one is from God. But whoever does not live for Christ but for himself and for the world, that is, for worldly pleasures, that one is not from God. Therefore Paul again says: "if there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not fleshly? And are you not walking according to human custom?" (1 Cor. 3:3). He who walks according to human custom does not have the Spirit of Christ; and whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, that is, does not live according to the teaching of Christ, that one is not Christ's.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is not from God, but this is the spirit of the antichrist, about which you have heard that it will come and is now already in the world.
The Apostle says that the antichrist is already in the world; of course, not in person, but in the person of false prophets, false apostles, and heretics who precede and prepare his coming. And the antichrist himself will be a man bearing Satan within himself, "exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. 2:4). This is also why he will forbid the worship of idols (which is what the Apostle meant by "that which is worshipped"), and will present himself alone as God.
1 John 4:4. Children! You are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:5. They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world listens to them.
1 John 4:6. We are of God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us.
Above, the apostle indicated the mark of the prophets and apostles of the Lord. Now he adds: you, being children of God, have overcome them, that is, the false prophets. Why? Because God, who is in you, is greater than he who is in the world, according to whose spirit the false prophets chose to live. Then he gives them yet another mark of the false prophets, in that it greatly distressed the simple ones among the faithful themselves. Some of them could naturally grieve, seeing that many received those others very eagerly, while they themselves were despised.
The Apostle also says: do not grieve if many despise you while accepting them; for like is drawn to like: they are of the world and speak worldly things, that is, they teach fleshly desires, which is why they also have listeners of the same kind, that is, the corrupt have corrupt listeners. But we, being of God and having departed from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them. The one who lives chastely listens to us, and therefore knows God, and is ready to listen to us. About this Christ also says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15), that is, He testifies that the one who has prepared himself to listen with obedience has ears.
1 John 4:6. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
1 John 4:9. The love of God toward us was revealed in that God sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we might receive life through Him.
1 John 4:10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
Above, the apostle showed with whom one should associate and with whom one should not; now he applies, as it were, a seal to what was said: therefore we know who has the Spirit of truth and who has the spirit of error, of false prophecy. Then he begins speaking about love again. Having shown that one must love certain people, namely those of like mind, he returns to what he said at the beginning. He says that love and the one who loves are from God, that the one who loves, and he alone, is born of God and knows God, while the one who does not have love does not know God either. Why then does the one who does not love not know God? He confirms this in the following manner. God is love. This is evident from the fact that He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world so that He might grant us true life and we might live through Him. For just as God is called goodness because in His goodness He created the intelligible and sensible world, so too, having sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world out of love for us, He showed through this that He is also love. Therefore he adds: "in this is love," that is, by this it is proved that God is love. Then, showing the surpassing quality of God's love, he says: God did this, that is, gave up His own Son for us, not because we loved Him, but He was the first to begin bestowing benefits upon us out of love and sent His Son, and not only sent Him, but also by His own blood accomplished the cleansing of our sins. But if, he says, God so loved us, although we are by no means of the same nature as He, then much more ought we to love, to love those akin to us, and, having learned the surpassing quality of love, to show it to others. For just as one who does not choose what is worthy of choosing is blameworthy, so praise belongs to those who love those worthy of love, because they are beloved. And we, having disposed ourselves in this way, possess both: we are loved, because God loves us and has received us to Himself as children; and we are beloved, because we love our neighbors.
1 John 4:11. Beloved! If God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is made perfect in us.
1 John 4:13. That we abide in Him and He in us, we know from the fact that He has given us of His Spirit.
1 John 4:14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
We have noted before that the Apostle John has a habit of repeating the same things about the same subjects. So he does now as well. No one, he says, has ever seen God. Speaking of love for the brethren, he pointed to God as an example of love, Who out of love for us delivered His Only-Begotten Son to death. Someone, upon hearing this, might ask: on what basis do you speak of things invisible? In answer to such a question he says: I myself say that no one has ever seen God; but from love for one another we come to know that God is in us. And he says this rightly, because many things invisible to us we come to know from their effects.
For example, no one has seen the soul, but from its actions and movements we are convinced that it exists and operates within us. So too we recognize God's love for us through a certain movement and action. If there is nothing incongruous in this, then this holy man also fittingly proves from the action that God is in us. What then is this action? Pure love for our neighbors. It is a sign of our abiding in Him and of His abiding in us, and also because He has given us of His Spirit. For the Pure One begets what is pure and unblemished. And since through pure love we have communion with Him, from this we, who have seen Him in the flesh, have known and testify that the Father sent Him, the Savior of the world. In order to more perfectly establish us in such knowledge, He Himself also gave an explanation concerning His own Person.