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 (I John 4:9-11, I John 4:19). Rome, by the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, denies Christ's proper humanity.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 John 4:2:
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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