Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 4:4-6

1 John 4:4-6. The apostle makes some strong assertions which have for their object to link a sound confession with a true religion. First, with reference to his Christian hearers, he connects their personal victory over the world, through the strength of Him who is greater than he that is in the world, that is, its prince, the spirit who sent the antichrists, with their sound faith. The indwelling God of chap. 1 John 3:24 had given them the victory over all seducers, though they needed still to be warned. Taking up the term ‘world,' he goes on to show that the same antichristian error which had come into the world is really of the world: doctrines from below which take their fashion from the earthly kingdom of darkness, breathe the spirit of fleshly reasoning, and taught by men whom the world heareth, because it loves its own. The unregenerate have no sympathy with the truth; they only who are born of God can know Him, and understand the things concerning Him. But he that is of God heareth us: the apostles and teachers of the faith are chiefly meant; but the same is true of all who witness a good confession. By this we know, or distinguish, the Spirit of troth, and the spirit of error, or the deceiving spirit. At the outset St. John spoke of the test of the confession of Jesus; now at the close the test is the religious and irreligious character of the teaching. He conjoins himself with his readers. Finally, we here have the answer to every argument against the universality of the testing privilege and duty: every Christian can discern between the true and the false confession of the Incarnate Son; and every Christian has the internal qualification of the indwelling Spirit that separates from the world.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 4:4-6

Old Testament

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