1Jo 4:1-3 | Family | STEP | Every spirit ; speaking to you through one who claims to be a prophet. Try the spirits ; the "discerning of spirits" was one of the special and temporary spiritual gifts, ; but here the apostle proposes such tests as all might employ, verses . The doctrines and practice of all religious teachers should be tried by the word of God. If they agree with this they should be received, and if not should be rejected. Hence the right and the duty of all men to be acquainted with the word of God, that they may rightly judge and act in this matter.

‏ 1 John 4:1-3

Every spirit; speaking to you through one who claims to be a prophet.

Try the spirits; the "discerning of spirits" was one of the special and temporary spiritual gifts, 1Co 12:10; but here the apostle proposes such tests as all might employ, verses 1Jo 4:2,3. The doctrines and practice of all religious teachers should be tried by the word of God. If they agree with this they should be received, and if not should be rejected. Hence the right and the duty of all men to be acquainted with the word of God, that they may rightly judge and act in this matter. Confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; or confesseth Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh. Many think that the apostle refers to a very ancient form of error which denied our Lord's humanity by maintaining that his body was a delusive show, existing only in vision; whence it would follow that his expiation for sin on the cross with his own blood was not real, but a vain show also. In all such passages as the present, the confession is to be understood as sincere, and as accompanied by a corresponding obedient reception of Christ in his proper character as he is revealed in the gospel. Is that spirit of antichrist; it is one of the forms in which the spirit of antichrist is manifested. Religious teachers who do not confess that Christ took upon him human nature, and became the propitiation for the sins of men, are not of God. 1Jo 2:2.