Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits [to see] whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.2 By this [you will] know[fn] the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses [that] Jesus Christ has come in [the] flesh is from God,3 and every spirit that does not confess [that] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh[fn] is not from God. This is the [spirit] of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and [which] is already in the world at this time.

4 You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who [is] in you than he who [is] in the world.5 They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them.6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit[fn] of truth and the spirit of deception.