²¹ You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?’

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)

² “I know your works, your toil and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them to be false.^(A)

²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.^(A)