1 John 4:1 meaning and explanation
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.
1 John 4:1, Berean Standard Bible
Explanation preview
In this opening verse of chapter 4, John is writing to a congregation he calls beloved, likely a group of house churches facing teachers who claimed spiritual insight but denied that Jesus had truly come in the flesh. The Greek word for spirits, pneuma, can mean both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit or a prophetic impulse, so testing means weighing a teacher's message against the truth about Christ, which John spells out in the next two verses.
Read and study this verse. Three complete study layers are included with Premium.