ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 John 4.1-3

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3. and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.

  1. Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 5. They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them. (1 John 4:1-5, ASV)
WEB

1. Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3. and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

  1. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5. They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. (1 John 4:1-5, WEB)
KJV

1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

  1. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. (1 John 4:1-5, KJV)
YLT

1. Beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world; 2. in this know ye the Spirit of God; every spirit that doth confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is, 3. and every spirit that doth not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is not; and this is that of the antichrist, which ye heard that it doth come, and now in the world it is already.

  1. Ye, of God ye are, little children, and ye have overcome them; because greater is He who [is] in you, than he who is in the world. 5. They, of the world they are; because of this from the world they speak, and the world doth hear them; (1 John 4:1-5, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: The letter is formally anonymous. Early and unanimous tradition assigns it to John the apostle (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5 and 3.16.8, c. AD 180), and its vocabulary and style are closely shared with the Fourth Gospel.
  • Audience: Churches in Roman Asia, addressed after a secession: "they went out from us, but they were not really of us" (1 John 2:19). The departing teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and that He has come in the flesh (4:2).
  • Location: Traditionally Ephesus, the center of the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
  • Time period: c. AD 85-95, late in the apostolic period. The stated purpose is assurance: "these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

Theological reading

The New Testament's most explicit instruction on testing spiritual claims, and the letter's christological criterion.

The command assumes both realities. "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." John neither dismisses spiritual phenomena nor accepts them; the same balance Paul strikes at 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. Dokimazete, test, is the assayer's verb, testing in order to approve what is genuine.

The test is a confession, not an experience. "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." The criterion is doctrinal and specific: not sincerity, not power, not effect, but what is said about the incarnation. The perfect participle elēluthota, has come, indicates an abiding state, so the confession is not merely that Jesus appeared in flesh once but that the enfleshment holds.

Who is being excluded. The secessionists of 1 John 2:19 evidently denied a genuine incarnation, the error later called docetism (from dokeō, to seem). Irenaeus connects the Johannine writings to opposition to Cerinthus, who taught that the Christ descended on the man Jesus at his baptism and departed before the cross. Whether or not the identification is exact, the confession John requires would exclude that view.

"The spirit of the antichrist." John is the only New Testament writer to use the word antichristos, and he uses it of a present spirit and of many antichrists (1 John 2:18) rather than exclusively of a single future figure. Whatever else the term later comes to mean, in this letter it names doctrinal denial already at work.

See Christian Discernment, Spirit of Antichrist, and Incarnation.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.