Editor’s note: This post is part of a series featuring outstanding excerpts from student papers at the BibleMesh Institute, which offers affordable online training for local churches, schools, and ministries. The author’s name has been withheld for privacy and security purposes. She is preparing to serve as a missionary overseas.
In this passage John warns the readers not to believe every spirit because of the existence of false prophets. In general, the ancient biblical audience would have defined a prophet as someone upon whom the Spirit of God rested, and someone to whom and through whom God spoke. In the New Testament, prophets are focused on proclamation more than prediction. False prophets are those who claim to be prophets—claiming to have the Spirit of God upon them and the authority to communicate from God—but are not. John states in verse 1 that there are many false prophets who have gone into the world. That’s why believers should test every spirit.
In verse 3, John associates the spirit of the antichrist with a refusal to “confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” The word “antichrist” can refer to “either an enemy of Christ or one who usurps Christ’s name and rights.” Scripture anticipates the arrival of the Antichrist. But in this passage, John boldly says that all who taught false views of Christ (e.g., that Christ was divine but not human) were in fact antichrists.[1] These were not fallen angels, Satan, or even the collective antichrist described in Daniel that many Jews associated with the Roman Empire. Instead, these were human teachers who were once part of the church. They denied the incarnation of Christ. John wants to draw his readers’ attention away from something that is yet to happen, and wants to focus them on an evil and deception that they are currently allowing in their midst. He is communicating the weightiness of what is at stake—of why he is imploring them to test every spirit.
The word used here for “spirit,” is the Greek word pneuma. It is the same word used for breath and wind, and like those things, it refers to things that are “commonly perceived to have no material substance; by extension: spirit, heart, mind, the immaterial part of the inner person that can respond to God.” The word “spirit” in this instance references someone who is claiming to have a divine gift or manifestation of the Spirit. This is confirmed by the following verses, which speak of false prophets.
The word “test” (v. 1) is the Greek word dokimazō, which can be mean to test, try, examine, prove, or discern. In this context, the word refers to an examining or proving. When John implores the readers to test every spirit, he is asking them to examine each one who is claiming to be a teacher, to discern whether they are of God. This would require more than a one-time examination, but rather a continual examination. Thus, John is asking his readers to be vigilant and stand guard against false teachers.
John follows his imperative to test every spirit with an explanation of how to do this. Very simply stated, “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (vv. 2-3). The test is simple: we examine teachers by their doctrine of Christ.
Today, we must take the principle found within this passage as an exhortation to “listen and evaluate carefully the message and the messenger against the infallibility of Scripture.”[2] Any spiritual teaching we receive—whether from a devotional book, podcast, or sermon—should be held to the test of Scripture. We should not receive blindly what is spoken just because someone is a preacher, has their master’s degree or PhD in theology, or has founded their own ministry. False teachers will come, and while we keep a watchful eye, we keep our confidence not in ourselves, but in Christ and the Spirit of truth within us.
[1] Alton T. Bryant, ed., The New Compact Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Holman, 1991), 46.
[2] Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, and 3 John: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, New American Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 2001), 164.