1 John 4:1-6

Testing the spirits

1 Dear friends, don't believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world.

2 This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human is from God,

3 and every spirit that doesn't confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

5 They are from the world. So they speak from the world's point of view and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn't listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or come in the flesh