1 John 4:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then he gives them another sign of the false prophets. This was something that greatly troubled the simple among the faithful. Some of them could naturally grieve when they saw that many received those men with great zeal, while they despised the faithful. The Apostle says: do not grieve if many despise you and receive them. Like seeks like. They are of the world and speak worldly things, that is, they teach fleshly desires. Therefore they have hearers of the same kind: the corrupt hear the corrupt.

They are of the world. Who is of the world? You have already heard who this is. If you yourselves are not such, you know them; but the one who is such does not know it.

They are of the world; therefore they speak according to the world, and the world hears them. Who speaks according to the world? Understand this: against love.

You have heard how the Lord said: If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Mt 6:14-15).

These are words of truth. Or, if they are not words of truth, try to say something contrary. If you are a Christian and believe Christ, then He Himself said: I am the truth (Jn 14:6).

These are words of truth, and they are sure.

Who are “they,” if not heretics and Manichaeans? Therefore they blaspheme, scattering evil words from their evil mind.

They, that is, the antichrists or adversaries of Christ, the false teachers and heretics, are of the world. They are among worldly people, who do not receive what is of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14).

They think and speak only according to the foundations of earthly wisdom. The heavenly truths of faith are incomprehensible to them. The earth and earthly goods are the objects of their care.

Therefore they think and speak as people devoted to sensual desires and passions think and speak.

Therefore the world hears them. That is, sensual people, who do not care for salvation or spiritual goods, heed the teaching of such false teachers.

This is because the false teachers teach in accordance with their thoughts and passions. They speak about what pleases their corrupted heart.

These people of whom I speak to you are led by the spirit and rules of this world. Therefore the world listens to them, follows after them, and does their will. But as for us, who preach the Gospel to you, we are servants of the living and true God. We proclaim the word of the life of God. Therefore only the one who has known God listens to us. This serves for us as a distinguishing sign by which to recognize the sons of God and the sons of this sinful world.

“They are of the world. Therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.” Here also the word “world” is taken in the sense of sin, corruption, and evil. To speak from the world, in Russian “in a worldly manner,” means to speak about those subjects that stir up sin in man. But only those who themselves are of this world listen to such teachers. Those born of God turn away from them. In any gathering, only those present who find the subject of the speaker pleasant and congenial listen and take his words to heart. Others stop their ears against such words, because they are unpleasant to them, or else leave the assembly altogether.

You, and we, are of God; they are of the world (1 Jn 2:16; Jn 15:19; 1 Cor 2:5; 6:8, 12, 14) and of the prince of the world (Eph 2:2; 2 Cor 4:3-4).

Therefore there is complete opposition between us. They speak, think, feel, and act in a worldly way, according to the spirit of the world and the foundations of worldly wisdom, which is opposed to the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:21 and following).

Therefore the world hears them. It likes such teachers and such teachings. It loves them and listens to them, because they flatter it (2 Pet 2:1-3).

They accommodate themselves to its views and tastes according to the direction of the age. They indulge its passions and habits, and deceive it with all kinds of excuses, hopes, and the like.

Despite the flattering speeches of the false teachers, victory will be on the side of the heralds of the true word of God. For all who know God incline their ear to it (1 Jn 4:4-6).

“Children, you are of God, and have overcome them.” The past tense is used instead of the present to indicate the undoubted truth of what is taking place. “For He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4).

Thus the work of God, that is, the teaching of Christ, must certainly triumph over heresies, as in fact it did.

Why, then, do various false teachers triumph, even if only for a time? Because “they are of the world, and therefore they speak according to the world,” adapting themselves to the tastes and passions of the age, “and the world hears them.”

Because false teachings appeared, and because Christians were opposed in general, a struggle had to begin. Jesus Christ Himself had already begun it victoriously.

Seeing certain examples of victory over the opponents of Christianity, the Apostle prophetically foretells that the whole work of the struggle will end in Christianity's favor.

The chief support for this thought is that the divine power of good lives and acts in Christians. In false teachers, and in people of the vain world generally, an evil power is at work.

Here also lies the temporary success of the false teachers. They know how to speak to the world by adapting themselves to its tastes and to the demands of the time.

The distinguishing mark of the children of God, unlike the children of the devil, is not only personal righteousness. It is also love for neighbors and faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

He truly, and not in appearance, came to earth in the flesh and suffered for the sins of the world.

Therefore the Apostle exhorts Christians not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world (ch. 4).

True prophets, the teachers of truth, teach by illumination from the Holy Spirit. False prophets are far from the truth, because they are under the influence of the devil, the spirit of malice, flattery, and deception.

False teachers, inspired by the spirit of falsehood, do not act in the world without success. But one should not be surprised at this. They owe their success to their pleasing of the world. “All that is in the world” is “the lust of the flesh,” sensual indulgence, “the lust of the eyes,” acquisitiveness, “and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16). False teachers not only fail to oppose these lusts, but they themselves surrender to them, to the pleasure of worldly people. Like seeks like, and one’s own rejoices in one’s own. In this attachment of the false teachers to the world and to the corrupt customs reigning in it, one must see another sure sign of their communion with the spirit of falsehood.