1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. 9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us. 20If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
John begins this new paragraph by addressing his readers as “beloved.” This indicates he is not correcting wrong behavior by guiding them. His command not to believe every spirit is a present-tense imperative, as is the positive command to test them. Present imperatives may either state a principle or imply the need to keep doing something or stop doing something. In this case, John encourages them to continue not to believe every false prophet but to test them.
John uses “spirit” to refer to the false prophets of his day. He is not alluding to demons. He clarifies this in verse 3, where he refers to this “spirit” as that of a person, not a demon or Satan, but of the Antichrist.
The reason for his readers to keep testing the “spirits” of the false teachers is precisely because of the presence of false prophets. Their teaching reveals its source. His reference to the many false prophets explains what he means by testing, in terms of who is being tested.
This relates to 2:19 and what he said about the false teachers who had departed from the apostolic circle. Their departure proved they were never part of the body of Christ. So, neither are these false prophets. The presence of “many” false prophets requires diligence and caution.