1 John 4:6

6. For ἐκ τούτου ([723][724][725][726], Peschito) [727], Vulgate, and Thebaic have ἐν τούτῳ.

[723] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[724] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[725] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[726] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[727] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.

6. ἡμεῖς. Once more we have no barren seesaw, but an advance. Αὐτοί is opposed to ἱμεῖς, and ἡμεῖς is opposed to αὐτοί: but ἡμεῖς is not a return to ὑμεῖς. The contrast between ὑμεῖς and αὐτοί is that between true and false Christians. The contrast between αὐτοί and ἡμεῖς is that between false and true teachers. As in 1 John 4:14 and 1 John 1:4, ἡμεῖς probably means the Apostles. Comp. 1 Corinthians 14:37.

ὁ γινώσκων τὸν Θεόν. Both the verb itself and the present participle are very expressive; ‘He that is increasing in the knowledge of God’. It is with a view to this increase that Christ has given us διάνοια (1 John 5:20); and he who has it ἀκούει ἡμῶν, listens to us. Here again we have that magisterial tone of Apostolic authority which is so conspicuous in the Prologue (1 John 1:1-4). It underlies the whole Epistle, as it does the whole of the Fourth Gospel, but here and there comes to the surface. It is the quiet confidence of conscious strength. Comp. ‘He that is of God heareth the words of God; for this cause ye hear them not because ye are not of God’; and, ‘Every one that is of the Truth heareth My voice’ (John 8:47; John 18:37). For ordinary Christians to adopt this language is presumptuous sectarianism.

Note, that, as usual, the antithesis is not exact: ‘he that knoweth God’ is balanced by ‘he that is not of God’; indicating that it is the child of God who comes by experience to know Him.

ἐκ τούτου. A fresh sentence should begin here. It is not certain whether ‘from this’ refers to the whole section (1–6), or to the latter half (4–6), or only to the first half of 1 John 4:6. In any case the meaning is, not that those who hear the Apostle have the Spirit of truth, while those who refuse to hear have the spirit of error; but that the Apostles have the Spirit of truth because God’s children listen to them, while the false prophets have the spirit of error because the world listens to them. On the other hand the world does not listen to the Apostles, because it has no sympathy or affinity with what they have to teach (1 Corinthians 2:14).

τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς�. The Holy Spirit; John 14:17; John 15:26; John 16:13 : comp. 1 Corinthians 2:12. It is not easy to decide whether τῆς� expresses the character of the Spirit, as in τῷ πνεύματι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῷ ἁγίῳ (Ephesians 1:13), and τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος (Hebrews 10:29), or the source, as τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ θεοῦ (1 Corinthians 6:11). The Spirit is the Truth (1 John 4:6), proceeds from Him who is the Truth (John 14:6; John 14:26), communicates and interprets the Truth (John 16:13-14).

τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης. The expression occurs nowhere else in N.T. Comp. τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ κόσμου (1 Corinthians 2:12). It is the spirit which emanates from him who ‘is a liar and the father thereof’ (John 8:44).