In Context

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God;

3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.

4 Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

5 They are of the world; for this reason they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

6 We are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 4:4 in Other Translations