Top Level Notes for 1 John 4:1-5
Verse 1: There is but one Spirit of Truth and one spirit of the antichrist.
- All men’s teaching must be tested by the word of God.
- There are many false teachers/prophets: They went out from us but they were not OF us.
Verse 2: This is how you know if some is of the Spirit of Truth:
- Every Spirit which confesses and acknowledges the fact that Jesus Christ [actually] has become man and come in the flesh, is of God, and has God as His source.
- In a man’s teaching he must openly confess in public what is true.
- Rome, by the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary, denies Christ’s proper humanity.
Verse 3: In contrast, every spirit which does not openly and publicly acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God.
- This non-confession is the spirit of the antichrist.
- We know him to be coming and is in fact already in the world.
Verse 4: I AM of God, I BELONG to Him
- Through the death of Jesus the antichrist (and his agents) have already been defeated.
- God, Who lives in me, is mightier and greater than he who is in the world.
Verse 5: They (the false prophets) proceed from the world and ore of the world (not of God) ->
- Because of this, it is out of this world that they speak…not out of God
- This world listens and pays attention to them
- Satan loves the false teacher/prophet who can lead astray the lost; better yet confuse, the righteous.