1 John 4:1-6
New American Standard Bible
Testing the Spirits
4 (A)Beloved, do not believe every (B)spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because (C)many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: (D)every spirit that (E)confesses that (F)Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that (G)does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the (H)antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and (I)now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, (J)little children, and (K)have overcome them; because (L)greater is He who is in you than (M)he who is in the world. 5 (N)They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 (O)We are from God. (P)The one who knows God listens to us; (Q)the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know (R)the spirit of truth and (S)the spirit of error.
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1 John 4:1-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Testing the Spirits
4 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.(A) 2 By this you 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[a] is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.(B) 4 Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for 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. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.(C)
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- 4.3 Other ancient authorities read does away with Jesus
1 John 4:1-6
The Message
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
4 My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
2-3 Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4-6 My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world’s language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.
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New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson