1 John 4:1-6

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^[a] is from God.

3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus^[b] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because 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; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or confesses Jesus to be the Christ come in the flesh
• [b]. Other mss read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh