Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 John · About this commentary
Test the Spirits
1 John 4:1-2
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. · WEB
Immediately after saying the Spirit is how we know, the letter warns that not every spirit is that one, and supplies a test anyone can apply.
The placement is deliberate. The previous verse ended by naming the Spirit as the evidence of God's remaining 1 John 3:24, and this one opens by saying not to believe every spirit. The letter builds in its own safeguard rather than leaving the appeal to the Spirit unguarded.
The command is put in the plural and addressed to everyone: test the spirits. No office is named, no qualified examiner is appointed. This is consistent with what the letter has already said about the anointing that all of them have 1 John 2:20 — if every believer is equipped, every believer is responsible.
The reason given is a fact rather than a possibility: many false prophets have gone out into the world. The verb is the same one used of those who left the congregation 1 John 2:19.
Verse 2 supplies the test, and its usefulness is that it is objective. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. The confession concerns a fact about the past, so it can be heard and checked; it does not require assessing anyone's sincerity, depth, or spiritual attainment.
And the tense is worth marking. The confession is that he has come — a completed arrival whose result stands. This is where the sister letter's wording differs, using a present participle instead, and that difference belongs to the sister letter's own verse 2 John 1:7.
settled What this mark means