Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Hereby--"Herein."
know . . . the Spirit of God--whether he be, or not, in those teachers professing to be moved by Him.
Every spirit--that is, Every teacher claiming inspiration by the HOLY SPIRIT.
confesseth--The truth is taken for granted as established. Man is required to confess it, that is, in his teaching to profess it openly.
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh--a twofold truth confessed, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is come (the Greek perfect tense implies not a mere past historical fact, as the aorist would, but also the present continuance of the fact and its blessed effects) in the flesh ("clothed with flesh": not with a mere seeming humanity, as the Docetæ afterwards taught: He therefore was, previously, something far above flesh). His flesh implies His death for us, for only by assuming flesh could He die (for as God He could not), Hebrews 2:9-10, Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 2:16; and His death implies His LOVE for us (John 15:13). To deny the reality of His flesh is to deny His love, and so cast away the root which produces all true love on the believer's part (1 John 4:9-11, 1 John 4:19). Rome, by the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, denies Christ's proper humanity.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
John 19:35
1 Corinthians 12:3
2 Thessalonians 2:2
1 Timothy 3:16
1 Timothy 4:1
1 Timothy 4:3
1 John 2:23
1 John 3:24
1 John 4:1
1 John 4:6
1 John 4:7
1 John 5:17
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