Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1Jn 4:1 NASB)
1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit – Do not confide implicitly in everyone who professes to be under the influences of the Holy Spirit. Compare Mat_24:4-5. The true and the false teachers of religion alike claimed to be under the influence of the Spirit of God, and it was of importance that all such pretensions should be examined. It was not to be admitted because anyone claimed to have been sent from God that therefore he was sent. Every such claim should be subjected to the proper proof before it was conceded. All pretensions to divine inspiration, or to being authorised teachers of religion, were to be examined by the proper tests, because there were many false and delusive teachers who set up such claims in the world.
But try the spirits whether they are of God – There were those in the early Christian church who had the gift of “discerning spirits,” (see the notes at 1Co_12:10), but it is not certain that the apostle refers here to any such supernatural power. It is more probable, as he addresses this command to Christians in general, that he refers to the ability of doing this by a comparison of the doctrines which they professed to hold with what was revealed, and by the fruits of their doctrines in their lives. If they taught what God had taught in his word, and if their lives corresponded with his requirements, and if their doctrines agreed with what had been inculcated by those who were admitted to be true apostles, 1Jn_4:6, they were to receive them as what they professed to be. If not, they were to reject them, and hold them to be impostors. It may be remarked, that it is just as proper and as important now to examine the claims of all who profess to be teachers of religion, as it was then. In a matter so momentous as religion, and where there is so much at stake, it is important that all pretensions of this kind should be subjected to a rigid examination. No one should be received as a religious teacher without the clearest evidence that he has come in accordance with the will of God, nor unless he inculcates the very truth which God has revealed. See the Isa_8:20 note, and Act_17:11 note.
Because many false prophets are gone out into the world – The word prophet is often used in the New Testament to denote religious instructors or preachers. See the notes at Rom_12:6. Compare the notes at 2Pe_2:1. Such false teachers evidently abounded in the times here referred to. See the notes at 1Jn_2:18. The meaning is, that many had gone out into the world pretending to be true teachers of religion, but who inculcated most dangerous doctrines; and it was their duty to be on their guard against them, for they had the very spirit of antichrist, 1Jn_4:3. (Albert Barnes Notes on the New Testament)
The present section, verses 1Jn_4:1-6, is a self-contained unity, clearly separate from what follows. It is linked with what precedes by the catchword “spirit,” which joins verses 1Jn_3:24 and 1Jn_4:1. It is not absolutely clear whether the mention of the Spirit in 1Jn_3:24 led John to develop the thought in this new section or whether in anticipation of this section he included the linking phrase in 1Jn_3:24. On the whole, the latter is more likely. With this section John returns to a theme which he has already discussed, that of the coming of the antichrists with their false christological confession. But the theme is taken up in a slightly different form. Here it is a question of the claims which were made by John’s opponents that their teaching rested on inspiration by the spirit. It is tempting to ascribe any unusual phenomenon to the power of God, and in the early church there was a tendency to regard any kind of unusual “spiritual” gift such as tongues or prophecy as being inspired by the Spirit of God, and therefore a sign of the validity and truth of what was said by the person possessed of the gift. Consequently Paul had to warn the members of his churches to “try” the spirits. The reality of demonic spirits was not questioned, as the various stories of exorcisms in the Gospels and Acts indicate. Christians, however, needed to be reminded that demonic activity could penetrate their churches. The fact that a statement was attributable to inspiration by the spirit did not prove that it was the Spirit of God which was at work. So John too found it necessary to remind his readers that not every “spirit” was to be believed. The word “spirit” here must mean either “utterance inspired by a spirit” or “person inspired by a spirit.” In the latter case the thought is perhaps of the individual spirit of a prophet, which might be inspired by God or Satan. Since this is the case, the members of the church must not believe what is said by inspired individuals without first testing whether the spirits are from God. There is a real danger of deception since many false prophets have gone out into the world. Such prophets had been the subject of warnings by Jesus (Mat_7:15; Mar_13:22); we have already seen how John regarded them as manifestations of antichrist (1Jn_2:18). They went out, like Christian missionaries (2 Jn. 7), in order to win converts for their cause. The important problem is: how do you test such people? [
…John’s test is not an infallible one. Jesus himself had to protest against people who called him “Lord” and yet did not do what he said (Mat_7:21-23; Luk_6:46). Mere confession with the mouth is not necessarily a guide to the belief of the heart. John’s test is accordingly relevant to a particular situation in which it was possible to regard certain people as inspired by the spirit of evil because of their faulty confession. In other circumstances a different form of words may be the test point. Ultimately, however, the whole of the Epistle furnishes the characteristics of genuine Christianity: faith, love, and righteousness are all relevant to the question, and concentration on any one of them to the exclusion of the others is bound to be misleading. (NICNT)
Spirit-inspired Prophets (1Jn_4:1)
Clearly the claim to be inspired by the Spirit can and must be tested, for the claim to have the Spirit is not proof that one does. Here spirit has been variously taken to refer to the spirit that inspires the prophet, to the person who is inspired or to the message delivered by the prophet. Obviously the three are related, for in testing a person’s words one is actually testing whether or not that person speaks by divine guidance. In light of the rest of the passage two things emerge: First, the author believes that individual persons are inspired or led to confess or deny Christ by spirits, some reality beyond the human individual. Second, ultimately there are only two spirits: God’s Spirit, also called the Spirit of truth because it guards and inspires truth (1Jn_4:2, 1Jn_4:6); and the spirit of antichrist, which inspires falsehood, and especially false confession of Christ (1Jn_4:3, 1Jn_4:6). The Elder’s readers are not to believe every claim to be divinely inspired or to have a prophetic message, but are rather to test the spirits, to discern whether a message is the truth that comes from God.
Such testing is necessary because many false prophets have gone out into the world.[46] While “prophet” in the Pauline literature refers to a specific function within the church (Rom_12:6; 1Co_12:10; 1Co_14:1-5; 1Co_14:29-33; Eph_4:11), the Johannine epistles refer more broadly to all of those who left the church as false prophets, because they carry with them testimony that claims to be spirit-inspired. That is exactly the point: all persons speak by the inspiration of one spirit or another (Brown [1982] p. 489). Now it falls to the community to discern which spirit guides the teaching of the various individuals whom they encounter. The church must exercise discernment, then as now, for truth and error are not always easily distinguished. They do not exist disembodied, but come to us in the shape of real persons with whom we share a variety of relationships. Precisely because “testing the spirits” entails dealing with other persons, perhaps even professed Christians, who claim to be guided by the Spirit, we must exercise care and humility in discerning the truth. (IVP New Testament)