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Distinguishing signs of the Spirit from God and the spirit of Antichrist (1–6). Love of God and love of God (7–10). Love for neighbors (11–12). The duty of Christians to love God and brothers and to confess that Jesus is the Son of God (13–16). The perfection of Christian love in boldness on the day of judgment (17–18). The inextricable connection between the love of God and the love of others (19–21). 1 John 4:1. Beloved! Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Having mentioned (1 John 3:24) the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit inherent in Christians, the Apostle now considers it necessary to warn readers against the possible danger from those who abuse the mentioned gifts. In the primal Church there was an abundance of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the Church (1 Cor 7:7-11): teaching, prophecy, miraculous healings, glossolalia, etc. were manifestations of the Divine Spirit in believers. But next to and in the likeness of the true inspiration from the Holy Spirit, with the true teachers and miracle workers, false inspiration appeared from the spirit of darkness - the devil; false teachers appeared, animated by the anti-Christian spirit, who could easily seduce and entice unsteady members of the Christian community. Therefore, Ap. warns Christians against such “spirits” or “false prophets.” John - “adds a sign to distinguish between true brothers and neighbors, so that, with this difference in mind, regarding the commandment of love, we do not enter into close relationships with false brothers, false apostles and false prophets and thereby cause ourselves great harm. For, having fellowship with them, as those who have the same rights, we, firstly, will harm ourselves, without fear communicating the teaching of faith to the wicked and throwing the holy thing to the dogs, then we will harm those who are devoted to us. For our love for false brothers, false prophets and false apostles will incline many to accept them as teachers and to believe their teaching without caution, and they will be deceived because of our treatment of them” (Blessed Theophilus). 1 John 4:2. Know the Spirit of God [and the spirit of error] this way: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 1 John 4:3. and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is not from God, but it is the spirit of the Antichrist, about whom you heard that he would come and is now already in the world. The decisive sign of a true prophet or Christian teacher is the Apostle’s confession of the appearance of God in the flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ: this is the main dogma of Christianity, in the prologue of the Gospel of John expressed in the words: “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). On the contrary, he who rejects this fundamental truth of the Incarnation thereby shows that he is not from God, but from the devil and the Antichrist: such were, for example, the Docetes mentioned by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, and also, probably, other similar false teachers of the same anti-Christian spirit. Antichrist in the strict and narrow sense of the word has not yet come, but the spirit of Antichrist is already active in many false teachers. “The Apostle says that the Antichrist is already in the world, of course, not in person, but in the person of false prophets, false apostles and heretics, anticipating and preparing his coming” (Theophilus). It is difficult to more accurately and closely determine the false teachings of those exposed, but in any case, these are not Gnostic heretical teachings of the 2nd century, and not those that have yet developed into a system of false teachings of the 1st century. 1 John 4:4. Children! you are from God, and you have overcome them; for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:5. They are from the world, that’s why they speak worldly, and the world listens to them. 1 John 4:6. We are from God; He who knows God listens to us; He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. To console and strengthen the believers, the Apostle proclaims to them that the victory of the true teaching of the Gospel over false teaching is undoubted (cf. below 1 John 5:4), since the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ that dwells in the faithful is immeasurably greater than the spirit of the will that acts in a world hostile to God in general, and especially in false teachers. This apostolic consolation to believers fully corresponds to the saying of the Lord Himself to the disciples in His farewell conversation: “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and like this promise of the Lord, it was powerful to bring complete encouragement to the hearts of Christians. But the pastoral love and care of the Apostle also turns to the other side of the matter. The Apostle “gives them another sign for recognizing false prophets, in that which has grieved the simplest of the most faithful a lot. Some of them, naturally, could grieve, seeing that many accepted them very zealously, but they were despised. The Apostle says: do not grieve if many despise you, but accept them, for like strives for like. They are from the world and speak worldly things, i.e. that is, they teach carnal desires, which is why they have the same listeners, that is, depraved depraved ones. And we, being from God and having removed ourselves from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them. The one who listens to us is the one who lives chastely and therefore knows God and is ready to listen to us” (Theophilus). In the last words of Art. 6 The Apostle, summing up everything that has been said about the discernment of spirits, “as if attaches a seal to what was said” (Blessed Theophilus). 1 John 4:7. Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:8. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love. 1 John 4:9. God's love for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we could receive life through Him. 1 John 4:10. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Having revealed the teaching about the true confession of faith in the incarnate Son of God and indicating the source of this confession in God (1 John 4:2) in contrast to the false teaching of false prophets and antichrists, the Apostle now shows that the second half of the Divine “commandment” (1 John 2:23) - love for neighbors, the ability to love them also comes from God. Clarifying the concept of love, the Apostle puts it in connection with knowledge: just as the knowledge of something presupposes a certain relationship between the knower and the known, and the higher our disposition and interest in the subject of knowledge, why the ancients said that like is known by like, so a similar phenomenon takes place both in religious life and in religious knowledge. Here, wherever true love takes place, there it forms something that came to people from God; whoever loves, God has revealed himself to him, therefore, he knows God; born of God (1 John 2:29, 3:9) and being a child of God (1 John 3:1); the lover knows God not only by faith, but also by direct inner feeling. On the contrary, he who does not love his neighbor, much less is at enmity with him (1 John 3:15), as a spiritual person and does not understand what comes from the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14), is inevitably alien to the correct knowledge of God - because “God is love” ό ​​θείς αγάπη εστίν (v. 8). This is, without a doubt, the most complete and deepest definition of the moral nature of God, and theology could never create a higher and more consistent definition of the Christian concept of the moral being of God, like this definition of the apostle of love. St. Gregory the Theologian says: “If someone asked us: what do we honor and what do we worship? The answer is ready: we honor love. For, according to the saying of the Holy Spirit, our God is love, and this name is more pleasing to God than any other name” (fol. XXIII). But, proclaiming the doctrine of God as love, the Apostle is dealing not with an abstract doctrine, but with a real event of the greatest world-historical importance: with the immeasurable event of God’s embassy into the world of His Only Begotten Son and the invaluable benefits of eternal life brought to earth by Him (v. 9). It was in this that the unimaginable Love of God for the world and humanity was revealed (v. 9; cf. 1 John 3:16), and the special greatness of this love is evident from the fact that it was given to sinful people without any merit on their part, on the contrary, in the presence of their grave and varied guilt before God (v. 10; see Rom. 5:8, 8:32). Thus, the source of love lies not in man, but in God. “Just as it is called goodness because through goodness He created the mental and sensory world, so out of love for us He sent His Only Begotten Son into the world, showing through this that He is also love” (Blessed Theophilus). 1 John 4:11. Beloved! if God loved us so much, then we should love each other. 1 John 4:12. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, then God abides in us, and His love is perfect in us. If, then, love in its essence comes from God and, therefore, our love is a flame from the Divine flame; if through the love of God we have become children of God from enemies, then loving our neighbors, even our enemies (cf. Matthew 18:33) is our most sacred duty (v. 11). In addition, if love in its essence is from God, then our love for our neighbors replaces our lack of direct contemplation of God. God is completely inaccessible to sensory contemplation, and no one has ever seen God (v. 12, cf. John 1:18, 6:46) in His being (see 1 Tim 6:16), only in the future life the righteous “will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2; Matt 5:8). But if loving God is our primary duty, then our possible communication with Him is most perfectly reflected in our love for our neighbors: love for our brothers shows that God abides in us, and God’s love in all its fullness and perfection has its dwelling in us (v. 12). 1 John 4:13. We know that we abide in Him and He in us from what He has given us from His Spirit. 1 John 4:14. And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The gracious, close communication of Christians with God, which constitutes the goal of human life, is a real fact, certified by direct Christian consciousness: a Christian is internally convinced of the reality of his possession of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (v. 13). But the root of this grace-filled communication of ours with God and our love for our neighbors lies in the event of God sending His Son to save the world (v. 14, see art. 9), which the Apostle testifies from himself and other self-seers of the Word incarnate (cf. 1 John 1:1, 2). Blazh. Theophylact gives such a paraphrase and such an interpretation of the words of the Apostle in Art. 11–14: “Speaking of love for brothers, the Apostle pointed out God as an example of love, who, out of love for us, gave up His only begotten Son to death. Another, having heard this, could ask: on what basis are you talking about invisible objects? In response to such a question, he says: I myself say the same thing, that no one has ever seen God, but out of love for each other we know that God is in us. And he says this rightly, because we learn many objects invisible to us from their actions. For example, no one has seen the soul, but from actions and movements we are convinced that it exists and operates in us. So we recognize God’s love for us through some movement and action... And this divine man proves by action that God is in us. What kind of action is this? Pure love for our neighbors. It is a sign of our abiding in Him and of Him in us, and also because He gave us of His Spirit. For the pure gives birth to the pure and undefiled. And since through pure love we have fellowship with Him, then from here we, who have seen Him in the flesh, have known and testified that the Father sent Him, the Savior of the world.” So, we ourselves have seen, and from the Only Begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), we have heard, and from the action of mutual love we know that God is in us, and has given us His Spirit, and we are in communion with Him.” 1 John 4:15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 1 John 4:16. And we knew the love that God has for us and believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. The inextricable connection between the confession of faith in Christ and love for others, which the Apostle had already spoken about earlier (1 John 3:23), is now affirmed with special force, since our very communication with God is made causally dependent on the confession of the Divinity of Jesus Christ and His saving work (v. 15), and, of course, the deeds of love accompanying faith are necessarily assumed (cf. 1 John 4:12). Art. 16 summarizes the content of the previous verses from vv. 1 John 4:7–8, and the main position of the entire speech of the Apostle is repeated: “God is love” (cf. 1 John 4:8). Summing up what has been said about the essence and origin of Christian love, the Apostle at the same time provides here a fulcrum for further revelation of the true essence of love. 1 John 4:17. Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we act in this world as He does. 1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is imperfect in love. The Apostle clarifies the question: what is the highest degree of perfection of love that unites believers with God, and resolves this question in the sense that a decisive sign of the perfection of love is the readiness of believers and lovers to fearlessly appear on the day of judgment before the terrible judgment seat of Christ - perfect love has “boldness”, παρρησίαν (cf. 1 John 2:28, 3:21, 5:14), that is, confidence and courage to be justified at the judgment of Christ. To do this, however, it is necessary that “we act in this world as He does” (v. 17). “Just as He was blameless and pure in the world,” so we will be in God, and God in us. If He is the teacher and giver of our purity, then we must wear Him in the world purely and blamelessly... If we live like this, we will have boldness before Him and will be free from all fear” (Theophilus). If the distinctive feature of perfect love is “boldness,” then the opposite feeling of fear should not take place not only in love itself, but also in the area in which it acts: “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” - of course, slavish fear, excited by the expectation of punishment and therefore containing torment; and “he who fears is not perfect in love” (v. 18). Based on the words of David: “Fear the Lord, all your saints...” (Ps. 33:10), others will ask: how does John now say that perfect love casts out fear? Are the saints of God so imperfect in love that they are commanded to fear? We answer. Fear is of two kinds. One is initial, with torment mixed in. A person who has committed bad deeds approaches God with fear, and approaches in order not to be punished. This is initial fear. Another fear is perfect. This fear is free from such fear, which is why it is called pure and abiding forever (Ps. 18:10). What kind of fear is this and why is it perfect? Because the one who has it is completely delighted with love and tries in every possible way to ensure that he does not lack anything that a strong lover should do for his beloved” (Blessed Theophilus). 1 John 4:19. Let us love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:20. He who says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? 1 John 4:21. And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should also love his brother. Having eliminated the imperfection of love in the form of fear (1 John 4:18), the Apostle proceeds to the conclusion of his speech about love for God and neighbors in the mutual relations of these two sides of love, indicating the need to base love for neighbors on love for God. The first object of a Christian’s love should be God (v. 19), the One who, with His love, manifested before we knew Him, and even when we were still hostile to Him (1 John 4:9-10), kindled the flame of true love in our souls. But love for God, if it really exists, must be reflected in a person’s actions and mainly in his love for his neighbor; a lack, and even more so a complete absence of love for our neighbors, certainly speaks of a lack of love for God, of only imaginary love - so that our love for God can be measured by our love for our neighbors (v. 20). “Love is obviously formed through treating each other; Conversion presupposes that a person sees his brother and, by treating him, becomes even more attached to him with love, for vision attracts a lot to love. If so, then whoever places much more value on the attraction of love does not love the brother whom he has seen, how can he be recognized as true when he says that he loves God, whom he has not seen, who is neither in his dealings with him nor is he embraced by any feeling” (Theophilus). The Apostle concludes his speech by indicating that the close, inextricable connection of love for neighbors with love for God constitutes a direct, positive commandment of God (τήν εντολήν αυτοΰ), v. 21. You might be interested in: