1 John 4

Do not believe every spirit; test the spirits, because many false prophets have gone out. Wesley: the spirit whereby any teacher is actuated; try by the written word—to the law and to the testimony.

The church is not credulous. The word is the rule, and hearers must use it. False prophets are already out; the test is present tense.

Calvin: many abused the name of Christ. Three parts: an evil dangerous to the faithful; the remedy, distinguishing spirits; a particular error, denying the Son appeared in the flesh. If Satan had already seduced many, similar instances ought not to terrify us now. The word spirit is metonymy for one who boasts the Spirit’s gift as a prophet. All are not to be heard indiscriminately. Try: addressed to the whole church and to every one of the faithful.

The word is the touchstone; the Spirit of discernment is still needed, or the word in the hand avails little. Ask for that Spirit.

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Wesley: every spirit or teacher; confesses with heart and voice. His coming presupposes, contains, and draws after it the whole doctrine of Christ.

The confession is not a bare syllable. Come in the flesh is the whole Christ—eternal, incarnate, for us.

Calvin: a special mark. Christ is the object at which faith aims and the stone at which heretics stumble. Abide in Him: safety. Come: He was before with the Father; eternal divinity. In the flesh: actual man, our brother, free from sin. Came: office and merits. Papists confess God and man yet rob Him of merit by freewill, works, satisfactions, advocacy of saints.

The eyes fixed on Christ, the end of the law and prophets. Come in the flesh is of God.

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, heard of as coming and now already in the world. Wesley: you have heard from our Lord and us that it cometh.

Antichrist is not only future. Refusal to confess Jesus as come in the flesh is the present spirit. The test remains the Person.

Calvin: added to render more detestable the impostures that lead away from Christ. All who depreciated Christ were members of that kingdom. The spirit of antichrist would come, and was already in the world in a different sense: already in secret iniquity; would come as open tyranny and subverted truth.

Members now, head in its season. Shared: not from God, and already here.

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. Wesley: you have overcome these seducers because greater is the Spirit of Christ in you than the spirit of antichrist in the world.

The Spirit in the believer is greater, and overcoming is spoken as already true of those who hold the confession. The fight is true; the Greater One is the reason, not our nerve.

Calvin: he had spoken of one antichrist; now many—the false prophets before the head. Object: animate the faithful. They had conquered because they would have a successful issue, already beyond danger as to the end. Greater is He in you: we become strong not by our own power. We can no more be conquered than God Himself. If we fought in our own strength, it would be all over; God repels enemies while we are reposing.

Certain victory follows because we fight by Christ’s power. He in you is greater.

They are of the world; they speak of the world, and the world listens. Wesley: those false prophets are of the number that know not God; they speak from the same principle; the world hears with approbation.

Matching 2:15’s world as rival. Popularity with that world is not a mark of the Spirit of God. The world listening is diagnostic, not success.

Calvin: no small consolation that those who assail God in us have only the world to aid them. The world: that portion of which Satan is prince. False doctrines easily spread because of men’s propensity to vanity. It is nothing new that the world should hearken to what is false.

“World”—they speak according to the views of the ungodly. Origin, speech, and audience match.

We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God does not. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Wesley: we—apostles—immediately taught and sent. Hereby we know from what is said in 4:2–6.

The apostolic we is the test beside the confession of 4:2. Knowing God shows in heeding that testimony. Error has a spirit; truth has one. The hearer’s response is not treated as a trifle.

Calvin: this applies to all the godly, yet refers properly to faithful ministers. He glories that he and his fellow-ministers served God in sincerity. False prophets boast the same; faithful ministers declare nothing but what they manifest. Be content with the fewness of the faithful. They who are not of God do not hear the pure doctrine. The hearing is inward, by faith. Trial of doctrine: whether from God or from the world. When false spirits pretend God’s name, inquire from the Scriptures.

Vast multitude rejecting is no diminution of the gospel’s authority. Obedience of faith proves we are of God. By this we know truth and error.