1 JOHN 4 [†]Beloved, t do not believe every spirit, but u test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for v many w false prophets x have gone out into the world. 2[†]By this you know the Spirit of God: y every spirit that confesses that z Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3[†]and every spirit a that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and b now is in the world already. 4[†]Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for c he who is in you is greater than d he who is in the world. 5[†] e They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and f the world listens to them. 6[†]We are from God. g Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know h the Spirit of truth and i the spirit of error.
7[†]Beloved, j let us love one another, for love is from God, and k whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8[†] l Anyone who does not love does not know God, because m God is love. 9[†]In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that n God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10[†]In this is love, o not that we have loved God n but that he loved us and sent his Son to be p the propitiation for our sins. 11[†]Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12[†] q No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and r his love is perfected in us.
13[†] s By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14[†]And t we have seen and testify that u the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of v the world. 15[†] w Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16[†]So x we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. y God is love, and z whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17[†]By this a is love perfected with us, so that b we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because c as he is so also are we in this world. 18[†]There is no fear in love, but d perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not a been perfected in love. 19[†] e We love because he first loved us. 20 f If anyone says, “I love God,” and g hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God h whom he has not seen. 21And i this commandment we have from him: j whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:10 not that we have loved God. God’s love sets the standard for the love Christians are called to embody. propitiation. See note on 2:2. Sin brings divine wrath. On the cross, Jesus bore that wrath for our sins (see 2 Cor. 5:21).
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:12 No one has ever seen God. See note on John 1:18.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:5 They are from the world … the world listens to them. Jesus himself did not convince most leaders of his time (John 7:48; Acts 4:26), and even the common people who followed him were often fickle (John 6:66). they speak from the world. Their speech originates from and is empowered by the world’s viewpoint and values.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:1–6 Overcoming the Antichrist’s Deception. It is not only Cain’s bad precedent of lack of love that John fears for his readers; it is also the forces of spiritual deception. John furnishes a litmus test to detect them.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:18 No fear in love does not rule out the presence and constructive effect of “the fear of the Lord” that is “the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Here John speaks of fear of final judgment (cf. 1 John 4:17). God’s perfect love for believers casts out the fear of wrath and eternal punishment.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:16 we have come to know and to believe. Assurance of salvation, while never an arrogant presumption, can become a settled state of mind and heart (see notes on 2:3; 5:13).
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:17 By this refers to the previous verse, where John speaks of believers abiding in God and God abiding in them. confidence for the day of judgment. Either eternal life or eternal punishment awaits all humanity (see John 3:36), and God’s love furnishes a sure hope for those who have trusted in him. as he is so also are we in this world. Just as the Son was and is present in the world in a loving fashion that in no way attracted divine displeasure, so are the Son’s followers. The love that Christ embodied and lived out among believers is their confidence in the day of judgment.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:9 God’s love is not an abstract principle or sentiment but was made manifest in the sending of his only Son into the world, so that sinful humanity might live, i.e., receive eternal life.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:19 We love because. Christian love is a gift from God, demonstrated supremely in the cross (see Rom. 5:8). God’s love always takes the initiative, and the love of Christians is a response to that love. Likewise, all morally good human actions are good not because they conform to some arbitrary human standard of good but because they are rooted in imitation of the morally perfect character of God and conform to God’s commands.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:14 we have seen and testify. This was particularly and uniquely true for apostles like John, who were Jesus’ hand-picked witnesses. By extension and through faith, all subsequent believers testify to the same truths. Savior occurs in John’s writings only here and in John 4:42.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:2 By this you know. John establishes a doctrinal standard, specifically a Christological one, for testing spirits (see v. 1). If a spirit (or a person moved to speak by such a spirit) does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that spirit or person is misleading God’s people. Apparently many false teachers were saying that Jesus only “appeared” to be human. This was probably based on a false idea that the material creation was inherently evil and therefore physical bodies were evil.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:3 every spirit that does not confess Jesus. That is, whoever refuses to acknowledge that Jesus is God the Son, “who has come in the flesh” (v. 2). Anyone can talk about Jesus and even believe that he lived on earth, as other religions, cults, and philosophies often affirm. But unless such people affirm both the full deity and the full humanity of Jesus, they are not truly “confessing Jesus,” but, as John states in unequivocal terms, they are under the influence of the spirit of the antichrist.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:15 Jesus is the Son of God, not in the derived sense that all Christians as God’s children are his adopted “sons” and heirs (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26) but in a unique sense (the Son of God) in which Jesus is acknowledged as personally divine and as sharing fully every attribute of God (see note on John 1:14). In 1 John 4:2 it was required that true teachers affirm Christ’s full humanity; here it is required that they affirm his full deity.
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:8 does not know God, because God is love. The person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. John is not saying that God is only love (he has numerous other attributes), nor that love is God (a statement for which there is no scriptural support). “God is love” means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit. There was eternal love between the persons of the Trinity even before the world was created (John 17:24), and God’s love is the ultimate source of any love that Christians are able to display (1 John 4:11, 12, 19).
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:11 Here and in v. 7 John uses a strong term of endearment, beloved (Gk. agapētoi), evidence that he himself has been mastered by the love he calls for. He uses the same word also at 2:7; 3:2, 21; 4:1. See also note on 2:1, “my little children.”
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:1 do not believe every spirit. Christian faith is not spiritual gullibility. test the spirits. The unseen spiritual influences that guide people’s speech and actions can be “tested” by observing their doctrine and conduct as well as by the gift of spiritual discernment (cf. 1 Cor. 12:10; 14:29). False prophets are people who claim to speak for God but are actually speaking by demonic influence (1 John 4:3–4). In today’s age of “tolerance,” discriminating discernment can be viewed as being judgmental (cf. “Judge not,” Matt. 7:1). Yet Jesus also taught, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24).
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:6 does not listen to us. People who are not true believers resist sound doctrine. It does not make sense to them and does not fit their man-centered, materialistic system of thought (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14).
1 JOHN—NOTE ON 4:4 he who is in you. The Holy Spirit (see vv. 2, 6). he who is in the world. Satan and, by implication, his demons (cf. v. 3; 5:19).