1 John 4:1-6
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 4
The Spirit of the Antichrist in the World[a]
1 Beloved,
do not trust every spirit,
but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God.
For many false prophets
have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh[b]
is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
is not from God.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist,
about whose coming you have been told,
and that it is already in the world.
4 Dear children,
you are from God[c]
and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world;
therefore, what they say is from the world,
and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God.
Anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who is not from God
refuses to listen to us.
This is how we can distinguish
the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.[d]
Footnotes
- 1 John 4:1 We must learn to discern the thoughts of human beings—the “spirits.” Among the teachers and theorists that had appeared at this time there were those who did not acknowledge Jesus as the Lord and Savior and wished to impose their views on the Christian communities. John says that this is perversion, the appearance of false christs of the end times (see 1 Jn 2:18-22). He strengthens believers by telling them that they do not belong to the world, i.e., this universe that delights in its limitations and its own insignificances. They must believe in the Gospel of God proclaimed by the witnesses who have been sent, among whom he places himself by saying “We are from God” (v. 6).
- 1 John 4:2 Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: see note on 1 Jn 1:1. John excludes the Gnostics, especially those known as Cerinthians, who taught that the Divine Christ came upon the human Christ at his Baptism and left him at the Cross—thus claiming that only the man Jesus died.
- 1 John 4:4 From God: another expression for “born of God” (1 Jn 2:29; 3:9). The one who is in the world: the devil (see Jn 12:31; 16:11).
- 1 John 4:6 Spirit of truth . . . spirit of falsehood: this refers to the theme of the two spirits, which is similar to the theme of the two ways (see Deut 11:26; Mt 7:13-14). Confronted by two worlds, those who live on earth choose one or the other by partaking of the spirit of either one (see 1 Jn 3:8, 19). However, those who choose the right one (the spirit of truth) will attain certain victory (see 1 Jn 2:13f; 4:4; 5:4f).
