Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 John 4:6

"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." — 1 John 4:6 (ASV)

The author repeats the description of the true followers as “we [who] are from God.” The “we” includes all the faithful but has particular reference to the true teachers. Whoever has knowledge of God through fellowship with him by loving him and abiding in him and his Word “listens to us” (cf. Jn 8:47; 10:4–5; 18:37), for the teachers proclaim the word heard “from the beginning” (cf. 1Jn 1:1). Thus a second test for discerning the presence of the Spirit of God has been added to the one developed in v.2. When people confess that Jesus came in the flesh, then the “Spirit of truth” has been present and active. When people deny the Gospel and will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, then “the spirit of falsehood” has been at work.