BATTLE LINES BEING DRAWN - 1 JOHN 4:4-5

Verse 4-5: You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

 

John begins verse 4 with you, as if to emphasize but you in contrast to those who represent the spirit of the antichrist. He is setting up the battleground configuration of the world we live in. The sides are: you—we the members of the Body of Christ; versus them—the legion of false prophets/teachers instigated by the spirit of the antichrist. The good thing for us is that on our side is the God of the universe, an absolute fact that our source is from Him eternally; while on the opposing side they have he who is in the world—the evil one (2:13).

This word overcome is derived from the Greek word níkē, from which we get the English word for the commercial brand name, Nike. Overcome appears 28 times in the New Testament and holds a special significance to John since it is used only 4 times outside of his writings. It means to conquer or to vanquish1 an enemy. The Greek tense here relays the fact that our victory is as complete now as it was the moment the battle was won, for this had previously been confirmed by John (2:13, 14).

Our Power Source

John underscores the reason for our having overcome the evil one, that it is not of our own doing. We cannot claim credit for single-handedly defeating our supernatural foe. We must give credit where credit is due; the power for victory comes from the God the Holy Spirit, Who is greater and mightier than any who oppose God’s plan for our lives. John asserts that His Holy Spirit is in you as an irrefutable fact. On this note we should be careful; for many believers today want evidence of this fact, believing that in some way they should feel and sense or even hear the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is our counselor, who assists us in our trials and confrontations of this world. He is the One, as Dr. Marvin Vincent states,

Who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world, of wrong, and pleads our cause before God our Father.2

And Dr. L.S. Chafer weighs in on this matter, quoting William Kelley that the Holy Spirit is,

“One who is identified with our interests, one who undertakes all our cause, one who engages to see us through our difficulties, one who in every way becomes both our representative and the great personal agent that transacts all our business for us.”3

The Apostle Paul maintains that the minds of mankind have been veiled by Satan from understanding spiritual phenomenon (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14). It is therefore the role of the Holy Spirit to guide believers into “all truth” and make known to them “what is to come” in the future (John 16:13).

This special ministry to believers is designed so that all believers will be able to comprehend the doctrines of the Christian faith (Ephesians 3:18). Dr. Chafer points out that regarding the believer:

The divine Teacher [the Holy Spirit] is within his heart and he therefore does not hear a voice speaking…but the mind and heart are supernaturally awakened from within to apprehend what otherwise would be unknown.4

Our Lord Himself stated this to be the established ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer in this present Church Age:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26)

It thus implies that for the Holy Spirit to perform His work, believers must possess a substantial knowledge of God’s Word stored up in their souls for the Spirit to bring to their remembrance the pertinent doctrines needed to sustain them during any and all trials and temptations from the evil one. This requires that we have sufficient doctrines that will refute the false teachers who are energized by the spirit of the antichrist. How else will we be able to successfully test the spirits (4:1)?

Enduring Victory?

 John praises his readers for they have overcome them, the false teachers, having done so by their reliance upon the work of the Holy Spirit, Who is greater than he who is in the world. The Apostle Peter tells us that he is our adversary, the devil “who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We must always be vigilant to the fact that the world is his battleground and we are ever in his crosshairs

These false teachers are indeed having their source from the world that the evil one controls. It therefore stands to reason that what they speak is from the world. Specifically, the content of what they speak is based upon human viewpoint and not of divine viewpoint that originates from Scripture, the mind of God (2 Timothy 3:14-17; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:16).

And what they persistently speak, the world at large attentively listens to them, because what the world hears appeals to their emotions, freeing them from their inner guilt that they are responsible to their Creator, “Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).  

The distressing fact is that within the Church today there are many believers who have listened and responded to false teaching. The Apostle Paul foretold of this day:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)

This is manifest by the acceptance of sexual abnormalities and the breakdown of the local and universal mission of the church of Jesus Christ. The local church was designed for the edification of the believers by a pastor/teacher for a specific purpose as described by Paul:

For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12–13)

 Is the instruction of God’s Word the primary objective of your local church? Are other activities or endeavors given greater priority? There must be a proper balance; teaching should be the highest priority along with missions. After that, the music ministry and fellowship are important but should never be the primary focus of the local church or the design for church growth. Allow the strategy to be directed by the Holy Spirit and the power of God’s Word.

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[1] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 539.

[2] Vincent, Marvin R. (n/d). Word Studies in the New Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2.244.

[3] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 6.39.

[4] Chafer, 1.109.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi 

 

THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST - 1 JOHN 4:3

Verse 3: And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

 

 

False Teachers Identified

John continues with his warning against false teachers, referring to them as every spirit. This is not implying they are ghosts or supernatural beings, but instead spirit refers to an individual and that aspect of their personality “by which he perceives, reflects, feels, desires.”1 He then describes their most disreputable and despicable characteristic: they are those who do not confess Jesus. Since John merely states Jesus, this is regarding their continuous refusal to acknowledge the humanity of Our Lord in His hypostatic union, as delineated in the discussion of the previous verse. They considered Jesus Christ to be just a ghostly apparition and not the eternal God-Man. This was the heresy propagated by the Gnostic false teachers in John’s day. The false teaching today is the denial of Christ’s deity by claiming that He was simply a good man or a wonderful teacher.

John emphatically assures us regarding these false teachers and their teachings that they do not have their origin from the ultimate source of God; and without a doubt they represent the spirit of the antichrist. This word is found only 5 times in the New Testament, and only in John’s epistles (but not in Revelation). The word antichrist means “one who claims to be Christ or is opposed to Christ.”2 Here it expresses the definite identity3 and intent of the false teachings about the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ.

It should be noted that this is not, as some have supposed, a reference to the Beast of Revelation (11:7; 13:1, etc.; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3), the person that theologians have named the Antichrist, who will wreak havoc during the Tribulation period prior to Christ’s Second Coming (Revelation 19). This is borne out by the phrase spirit of the antichrist. Even though the word spirit is not in the original Greek, yet all translations include the word based on the rules of Greek grammar that it is “clearly implied.”4 Accordingly, Dr. Ryrie states that this phrase “refers to demonic forces behind anti-Christian teaching and activity.”5

Heard it is Coming

Of which (the spirit of the antichrist) you have heard it is coming. This phrase is almost as if John is refreshing their memory of something they had already known about. What could he be referring to? For this was discussed in 1 John 2:18, that John’s readers were aware of the writings of the early church and had heard the warning the Apostle Paul gave to the Ephesian elders:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”(Acts 20:28–30)

Since Paul wrote to Timothy in Ephesus, John’s readers would have been familiar with them and his continued warnings:

As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. (1 Timothy 1:3–4)

Paul further revealed what to expect in the future:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

And now, 30 years after Paul had written to Timothy, John is reminding them of what they had heard and were taught, most likely by John himself, given that “strong tradition says that John spent his old age in Ephesus.”6

John uses two different Greek tenses for the word heard in 2:18 and here in 4:3. In 2:18 he is simply stating the fact of the occasion upon their hearing of this truth. 7 Whereas in our passage, the Greek tense describes the existing results of what they have heard, as explained by Dana & Mantey: “This is the emphatic method in Greek of presenting a fact or condition.”8 The existing result of what they have heard is that it (the spirit of the antichrist) is persistently coming and they now know the specific false teachings: the denial of the humanity of Jesus Christ.

Already Present

The following phrase should be disturbing to all believers in Jesus Christ. These false teachers, these savage wolves, these antichrists are already in the world. They are present among us today. They have come “from among our own selves” (Acts 20:30) and they have entered into our churches. Jude informed us of this:

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)

The Jews in the 1^st Century denied the deity of Christ (John 5:18; 10:33; 19:7); while the Gnostics rejected His humanity, believing that God could not be associated with inherently evil matter, namely the flesh of humanity.9 Today, false teachers reject the authority of Jesus Christ, made evident by their rejection of the authority of His Word—Scripture. Their errant interpretation of Scripture mingles doctrinal truth with cultural dictates, eager to become friends with the world. It is difficult to determine what exactly motivates them and blinds them from the truth. But the Apostle James aptly describes them and reprimands them of their error:

 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Let us be alert to this insidious trend and instead remain loyal to the authoritative and infallible Word of God.

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[1] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.593.

[2] Newman, B. M., Jr. (1993). In A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; United Bible Societies, p. 17.

[3] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 137.

[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament, Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1 John 4:3.

[5] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, Chicago: Moody Press, p. 1994 note.

 [6] Ryrie, p. 1900.

 [7] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 196.

[8] Dana & Mantey, p. 202.

[9] Kurian, G. T. (2001). Docetism, In Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary: the Authoritative Resource on the Christian World. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi 

RECOGNIZING THE FALSE TEACHERS - 1 JOHN 4:2

Verse 2: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

There is a tendency in the Church today of those who carelessly handle the Word of God, either unknowingly, from the lack of adequate training or deliberately, determined to lead astray God’s people. This is evidenced by the insufficient attention a teacher might give to the accurate analysis of Scripture or when they intend to satisfy those who embrace personal notions or cultural dictates, even when they conflict with Biblical truth. Our primary consideration in understanding the meaning of Scripture is that it is never based upon one’s own private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). Instead, it was designed by God to be understood according to His standards, having a specific and significant purpose for believers, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

The Test

Believers need to be vigilant of modern day “destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1) since there is a real potential of encountering false teachers today. Dr. Francis Schaeffer observed that,

In our day most heresies deny the true deity of Christ, but in the early church the common heresy was the denial of the true humanity of Christ.1

These heresies were identified as the Gnostic heresy in the Introduction to this study of 1 John. John, and the early church, was confronted by a branch of Gnosticism known as Docetism, whose followers believed that Our Lord was not human but a phantom, an apparition. They denied the conception and physical birth of Our Lord, advocating that Jesus had what only seemed or appeared to be a real body, yet able “to converse, to eat, to suffer, and to die.”2 The 19^th Century theologian Albert Barnes quoting from Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 3 further explained what this heresy alleged of Our Lord’s nature:

He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; but it was a form only, and not a substance; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence to imitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies.4

Therefore, John provided a much needed and very simple test to utilize in determining if the Holy Spirit is the actual influencer of a person claiming to be a teacher of God’s Word. In order to counteract the Gnostic heresy, John clearly stated that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ comes [and continues to remain5] in the flesh is from God.” This absolute statement of fact makes any other interpretation of the nature of Our Lord a Biblical impossibility, conflicting the plain teaching of Scripture (John 1:14; Romans 1:2; Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 2:14). Note the Apostle Paul’s warning:

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. (Romans 16:17)

The Truth

It is important to note that Jesus refers to His humanity and Christ refers to His deity. Possessing both natures eternally indicates that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe—the God-Man. This is known in theology as His hypostatic union; it refers “only to Christ in whom, as in no other, two distinct and dissimilar natures are united.”6 This is the “description of Jesus Christ as undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.”7 Paul proclaimed “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Upon this truth, the relevancy of Christianity exists.

So, what makes confessing the permanency of Jesus Christ having come in the flesh of such vital importance? Why is this essential truth so crucial to the Christian faith?

Scripture concludes: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), therefore an atonement to satisfy God must be attained if mankind is to make peace with their Creator. In the Jewish Age, atonement for sin was undertaken by the high priest who offered sacrifices for sin. However, the writer of Hebrews concluded that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4) and therefore a more perfect sacrifice were needed.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11–12)

The sacrifice He offered as our high priest is Himself, by His vicarious suffering and death on the cross on behalf of all sinful mankind. By His work on the cross, He becomes our mediator, one who can alleviate the adverse relationship between God and man—the barrier of sin (Isaiah 59:2). A mediator must be “someone who understands both God and man and can bring them together in harmony.”8 This was Job’s dilemma in the midst of his intense suffering; when he felt helpless before God he proclaimed:

There is no umpire between us,

Who may lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)

But God in His matchless grace provided, on behalf of all mankind, Jesus Christ as mediator—the One who can intercede between God and man, since He is both God and man.

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2:5–6)

Conclusion

Based upon Christ’s self-sacrifice, the Apostle Paul asserts that all those who believe are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:22-25). This Greek word for propitiation literally refers to the mercy seat of the Old Testament, where the blood sacrifices were offered for the atonement of sin. Those sacrifices satisfied God’s righteousness demands, so that now Christ’s atoning work "causes God to deal with us mercifully,”9 and thus providing mankind a peaceful and harmonious relationship with his Creator. As the Apostle Paul affirmed “For He Himself [Jesus Christ] is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14a; cf. Isaiah 9:6).

We now understand why John emphasizes this so vital truth twice in his epistle:

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

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[1] Schaeffer, Francis A. (1985). The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2.338.

[2] Barnes, Albert (2005). Notes on the New Testament (R. Frew, Ed.), Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, XIII.2.276.

[3] Gibbon, Edward (1776–1789). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3.245.

[4] Barnes, XIII.2.276.

[5] This is the essential meaning of this verb “comes” from the Greek.

[6] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1.382.

[7] Thieme, R.B., Jr. (2022). Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, Houston, TX: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, p.130.

[8] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 update. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 790, note.

[9] Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G2435. 

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi