Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Hereby know ye (en toutw ginwskete). Either present active indicative or imperative. The test of "the Spirit of God" (to pneuma tou qeou) here alone in this Epistle, save verse 1 John 4:13. With the clamour of voices then and now this is important. The test (en toutw, as in 1 John 3:19) follows.
That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (Ihsoun Xriston en sarki elhluqota). The correct text (perfect active participle predicate accusative), not the infinitive (elhluqenai, B Vg). The predicate participle (see John 9:22 for predicate accusative with omologew) describes Jesus as already come in the flesh (his actual humanity, not a phantom body as the Docetic Gnostics held). See this same idiom in 2 John 1:7 with erxomenon (coming). A like test is proposed by Paul for confessing the deity of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:3 and for the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus in Romans 10:6-10.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
1 John 2:3
1 John 4:6
1 John 4:15
2 John 1:7
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