By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
Not every professor of the Spirit is to be trusted or followed, for where real communications from God exist, counterfeits spring up alongside them. God will not withdraw His truth because men pervert it; the duty falls to us to try the spirits, to discern the genuine from the pretender.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 John 4:1-3
In these words our apostle lays down a plain mark and rule of trial, how they might know a teacher that was acted and inspired by the Spirit of God, from one that was not; such a one as durst truly and openly in the face of danger own and profess, teach and preach, Jesus Christ in his person, nature, and offices, as the incarnate...
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.