⁴You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

You, they, we-the apostle John writes quite directly. The “you” are his readers, Christians for whom he writes affectionately and protectively. The “they” are the false prophets (vs. 1) whose teachings are anti-Christ. The “we” includes John and the other apostles who, in solidarity, taught the foundational truths of the faith. The church in Jerusalem set a precedent for what historians call the “received” apostolic teaching: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). The apostle Paul also emphasized this collected and unified teaching as well when he wrote that the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20).

We believers are “from God,” unlike the false teachers who are “from the world.” John categorizes humanity in two separate spheres, children of God versus children of the world. Our common existence with all people as human beings made in God’s image may give some basis for speaking of “the family of man.” But God sees individuals as being in either one or the other camp. We are members either of God’s people or the world’s people, one or the other.

John unequivocally and adamantly warns us that the real battle is with the spiritual world, not just the false teachers themselves. False or pseudo-Christians in the church will listen to false teachers because worldly teaching resonates with the worldly spirit. But the good news is that the Holy Spirit in believers is greater than the spirit in the false prophets and teachers. He is more powerful because He is the true spirit of Christ, God’s beloved Son. And so the Spirit of Christ causes apostolic teaching to resonate with our spirits; thus, we listen to true spiritual teaching.

Praise God we are not left to our own wisdom to discern truth from error; the Lord has given us apostolic teaching as the standard by which we can test all teaching that comes our way. If we are truly saved and have the Spirit of God in us, then we will listen to apostolic teaching. Their teaching has been preserved for us in the canon of NT Scripture, the inspired Word of God. What does not conform to the clear understanding of this is false teaching.

Lord, help me know the apostolic teaching of Your Word well, so I can confidently discern between truth and error that comes from those who teach.