1 John 4:1

‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.'

‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God.' We are here faced with a problem of interpretation. What does he mean by ‘every spirit'. At what point is an external ‘spirit' being spoken of as compared with the actual inner spirit of the prophet? For Paul had spoken of ‘the spirits of the prophets' and clearly meant by that their own spirits within them as stirred by the Holy Spirit. He would hardly have countenanced a multitude of spirits in the church, and there is no evidence of such elsewhere.

We certainly know of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, and John also speaks of the spirit of error (1 John 4:6), although possibly not having in mind a specific ‘spirit'. In the light of what has been said elsewhere it is possible that we might see this spirit of error as hinting at the Evil One, the Devil (1 John 2:13; 1 John 3:8; 1 John 3:10; 1 John 5:19), or possibly some of his minions, the ‘evil spirits' of the Gospels, who speak through the antichrists (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22). But then we might rather have expected him to speak of the ‘spirit of deception'. The idea of the spirit of error may simply therefore be of any ‘spirit', whether the internal spirit of the prophet or an external spirit which possesses him, which prophesies error. For at certain times it might well be just a vivid imagination that was at work. Many things can lead to error.

By ‘every spirit' John may thus mean that which was seen to be at work in the prophet, of whatever nature it was. It might be the Holy Spirit working through the prophet's spirit, it might be the prophet's own spirit stirred up to ecstasy and working on its own inspiration, or it might be an evil spirit possessing the prophet.

‘Prove the spirits.' As we have suggested above, in 1 Corinthians 14 where Paul spoke of ‘the spirits of the prophets' he was almost certainly speaking of the prophets' inner spirit (1 Corinthians 14:32), for he would hardly have countenanced a number of spirits speaking through them. And the fact that John here speaks of ‘every spirit' as possibly being used by the Holy Spirit confirms the same. There is nowhere else any suggestion of more than one Spirit at work in the churches. Thus this might well be what John mainly means here. But he would certainly recognise that sometimes at least there was something more sinister at work behind false prophets. Either way the test was necessary because there were now so many false prophets.

‘Are gone out into the world.' These false prophets are of the world. They are not of God, and they have no message from God. They go to the world and preach what the world wants to hear.

But they also visit the churches. And we must remember with what eagerness the churches would welcome Christian brothers. That is why letters of introduction had in the end to take such an important place among them. But these false prophets have no place among Christians, for they preach error. Thus all prophets must be tested. For sadly Christians were becoming enticed by these false prophets. The love of the world still drew some of them.