1 John 4:3

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus ^[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.

1 John 4:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 John 4:3

And every spirit that confesseth not
The proper deity and sonship of Christ, his true and real humanity, and his Messiahship; or any of his offices, doctrines, and ordinances; or his satisfaction and righteousness; or that peace, pardon, justification, life, and salvation, are by him; all which are meant by what follows,

that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh:
this clause is left out in the Ethiopic version, and that without hurting the sense, since it is easily supplied from the preceding verse; and the Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin version, only read "Jesus": and the latter reads the whole thus, "and every spirit that dissolves Jesus"; that separates the two natures, human and divine, in him, and makes two persons of them; or denies either of them, either that he is truly God, or really man, or denies him to be Jesus, the Saviour; who, as much as in him lies, destroys his person, office, and work, and makes void his obedience, sufferings, and death:

is not of God;
neither he nor his doctrine are of God; his doctrine cannot come from God, being contrary to the word of God; and he himself is neither born of God, nor on his side.

And this is that [spirit] of antichrist:
who is against Christ, or opposes himself to him; as he who denies his sonship, his deity, his humanity, his offices, and his grace, manifestly does; every doctrine that is calculated against these truths is the spirit and doctrine of antichrist:

whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is
it the world;
in the false teachers, the forerunners of antichrist; (See Gill on 1 John 2:18).

1 John 4:3 In-Context

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.

4 You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

5 They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them.

Footnotes

• [a] BYZ and TR that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh