1 John 4:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus he has already drawn our attention. Whoever has known God hears, and whoever has not known Him does not hear. In this lies the distinction between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Let us see in what he will instruct us, so that we may hear him.

Likewise: He who is of God hears the words of God (Jn 8:47). And again: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (Jn 10:27).

The Lord says this about those who believe in Him, or know Him.

According to the meaning of Holy Scripture, knowledge of God is true faith in Jesus Christ and God the Father, justified by love and by keeping the commandments of God.

In this sense the Lord says: This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent (Jn 17:3).

He who is not of God does not hear us. Whoever is not regenerated by God, is not led by the Spirit of God, and does not have living faith in Jesus Christ, does not attend to our teaching and does not follow it.

The Lord and Savior Himself, after saying, He who is of God hears the words of God, added, turning to the unbelieving Jews: Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God (Jn 8:47).

By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Above, the Apostle showed a special sign that serves to distinguish true teachers from false ones.

He said that whoever confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh, that is, become man, is from God and is a true teacher.

Whoever does not confess the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not from God. He is antichrist, or an adversary of Christ.

Now Saint John discloses a general sign for distinguishing those who truly believe in Jesus Christ from those who are in error.

He who knows God, or truly believes in Jesus Christ, hears us, says John. That is, he receives the teaching of the apostles and of their successors, the teachers of Christ's Orthodox Church.

But whoever is not of God, whoever does not believe in Jesus Christ or does not have true faith in Jesus Christ, does not hear us.

He does not receive the teaching of the apostles and the teachers of Christ's Church.

Saint John the Theologian concludes: By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Thus we know who truly believes in Jesus Christ and lives according to the Spirit of Christ. We also know who does not believe in Jesus Christ, or who believes untruly and follows the spirit of error.

True Christians attend to the preaching of the apostles and the teachers of the Church, and follow their instructions.

Unbelievers, those who believe untruly, and those in error do not attend to the apostles and teachers of the Orthodox Church. They do not follow their instructions.

“The Apostle gives another sign for recognizing false prophets, in a matter that caused no little grief to the simple among the faithful. Some of them could naturally grieve when they saw many receive those men very zealously, while they themselves were despised.

The Apostle says: Do not grieve if many despise you and receive them. Like tends toward like. They are of the world and speak worldly things, that is, they teach fleshly desires.

For this reason they also have such hearers, the corrupt listening to the corrupt. But we, being of God and having withdrawn from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them.

The one who lives chastely hears us, and therefore knows God and is ready to listen to us” (Theophylact).

By this, or for this reason (1 Jn 4:3, 19), we know, and so forth. “The Apostle, as it were, sets a seal on what has been said.

By this we know who has the Spirit of truth and who has the spirit of error and false prophecy” (Theophylact).

This is the conclusion of the Apostle's whole discourse on discerning, or testing, spirits, that is, teachers and false teachers. It is also a second sign by which teachers and false teachers are recognized, closely connected with the first.

The first sign is this: whoever confesses the divine-human reality of Christ is a true teacher. Whoever does not confess this truth is a false teacher.

The second sign is this: whoever knows God and Christ, and hears the word of Christ preached by the apostles and through them by the teachers of the Church, is a true teacher.

Whoever does not hear them is a false teacher, a follower of antichrist, and a son of the devil.

“We are of God,” adds the Apostle, that is, we do not go to meet human tastes and passions. Yet “he who knows God hears us. He who is not of God,” the impious man, “does not hear us.”

“By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn 4:5-6).

These demands are calculated to satisfy not higher interests, but passions, present conditions of life, and the needs of knowledge.

But one who has a regenerated heart must know that higher knowledge and the fullness of life are revealed through God. Therefore His apostles must be received as the most trustworthy heralds of true teaching.

From this it naturally follows that recognition of apostolic authority is an essential sign of abiding in the truth and of safety from error.

He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me, Jesus Christ said to the apostles (Lk 10:16).

The Apostle calls all teachers and prophets in general “spirits,” having in view the source of the teaching they preach. Some are spirits of God, and others are spirits of error.

Know the Spirit of God, and the spirit of error, in this way: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is from God.

Every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world.

It is present in the false prophets and heretics who precede his coming.

Yet the manifestations of the spirit of antichrist in the world, and the assaults of false prophets against the Truth of Christ, must not trouble Christians.

Children, you are of God, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are of the world. Therefore they speak according to the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Such people have an inner kinship with us. Therefore they are drawn to us as true teachers and will obey us.

Who, then, does not hear us? He who is not of God (cf. Jn 8:47). That is, one who has inwardly departed from God, though with his lips he confesses that he knows Him.

It is one who has cleaved to the world to the point of forgetting God. He has ceased to be a child of God and has despised the grace of regeneration from God in baptism.

Such people have nothing in common with us. Therefore it is not surprising that they hear not us, but false teachers inspired by the spirit of falsehood, the devil.

Their inspiration seems to worldly people to be inspiration from the Spirit of God. Yet it is enough to expose their communion with the spirit of malice that they serve the world hostile to Christ's truth.

The final words of the verse considered were not included in the reading: By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.