1 John 4:1-6

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Does anyone know of any commentary on 1 John 4:1-6 from the ECFs or from any official Church approved writing? I am trying to determine how they interpreted these passages and if the text covers all anti-Christ faiths or just a specific one that St. John did not explicitly name. I am truly trying to discern if Rabbinic Judaism and Islam fall into this teaching of St. John. Any help would be appreciated. I was able to find one by St. Augustine at New Advent, but it skips verses 1-3 and does not speak to my question, at least I don’t think it does.

newadvent.org/fathers/170207.htm

Thanks in advance.

Pax Christi.
 
Below comes from my computer Bible program, specifically the 'New Testament verse references in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

1Jn 4:1
Irenaeus Against Heresies Book III
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-60.htm#P7661_2081885

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit which separates Jesus Christ is not of God, but is of antichrist."[297]

Tertullian Against Marcion Book V
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-35.htm#P7919_2255849

by the Apostle John, who says that “already many false prophets are gone out into the world,” the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh,[740]

Dubious Hippolytus Fragments
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-20.htm

Believe not every spirit, because many false prophets are gone out into the world."[37]

1Jn 4:2
Tertullian Against Praxeas
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-43.htm#P10855_3047505

John, moreover, brands that man as “a liar” who "denieth that Jesus is the Christ; "whilst on the other hand he declares that “every one is born of God who believeth that Jesus is the Christ.”[398]

Cyprian Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-122.htm#P8139_2700937

But whosoever denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist."[184]

1Jn 4:3
Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-11.htm#P832_153920

"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist; "[41]

Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-29.htm#P2721_444612

And he that rejects the incarnation, and is ashamed of the cross for which I am in bonds, this man is antichrist.[24]

Tertullian The Prescription Against Heretics
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-24.htm#P3568_1214235

But in his epistle he especially designates those as “Antichrists” who “denied that Christ was come in the flesh,”[361]

Tertullian Against Marcion Book V
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-35.htm#P7919_2255849

and do not acknowledge[741]

Tertullian On the Flesh of Christ
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-39.htm#P9641_2643799

the virgin friend of Apelles. Surely he is antichrist who denies that Christ has come in the flesh.[339]

Tertullian On the Resurrection of the Flesh
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-41.htm#P9872_2728142

no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist;[144]

Cyprian Epistle LXXII
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-97.htm#P6270_1984260

how can either darkness illuminate, or unrighteousness justify? And when they say that “they are not of God, but are of the spirit of Antichrist,”[20]

1Jn 4:4
Cyprian Epistle VIII
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-33.htm#P4898_1482943

re already crowned, while some are even now within reach of the crown of victory; but all whom the danger has shut up in a glorious company are animated to carry on the struggle with an equal and common warmth of virtue, as it behoves the soldiers of Christ in the divine camp: that no allurements may deceive the incorruptible stedfastness of your faith, no threats terrify you, no sufferings or tortures overcome you, because "greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world; "[2]

Cyprian Treatise XI Exhortation to Martyrdom Addressed to Fortunatus
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-121.htm#P7766_2610984

John, in his epistle, proves this, saying: “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.”[70]

Cyprian Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-122.htm#P8544_2777276

Of this thing also in John: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world.”[430]

1Jn 4:6
Shepherd of Hermas Commandment Third
ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-02/anf02-13.htm

How then can I live, since I have acted thus? "And he said to me, “Your feelings are indeed right and sound, for you ought as a servant of God to have walked in truth, and not to have joined an evil conscience with the spirit of truth, nor to have caused sadness to the holy and true Spirit.”[5]
 
Below comes from ‘A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture’, also in my computer Bible program.

1Jn 4:1-21 IV:1-6 The Discernment of Spirits —1. Besides those impulses which have their origin in ourselves, there are two other kinds of spiritual activity, which come from without. God can enlighten the mind and move the will of man, either immediately or through the agency of others. On the other hand, the evil spirit tries to perplex and disquiet the faithful with false teachings, and he can imitate the appearance of good in order to deceive men. Hence, the Apostle warns his readers not to trust every spirit, but to put the revelation they receive, or the teaching they hear to a test, to see whether it is from God or from the devil. 2-3. Teachers, who are animated by the divine Spirit, defend the incarnation of the Son of God. Those who make a distinction between Jesus, a mere man, and Christ, the Son of God, are not of God, but of Antichrist. 4. The Apostle is grateful that his ‘little children’ have not been deceived by such false teachers, because God, who dwells in them, has helped them to persevere in the truth.
 
Below comes from the 'Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary, again also in my computer Bible program.

1Jn 4:1 Try the spirits; i.e. every doctrine that you hear: for now are many false teachers, false doctors, and false prophets. (Witham) — Try, &c. viz. by examining whether their teaching be agreeable to the rule of the Catholic faith and the doctrine of the Church. For, as he says, (ver. 6) “He that knoweth God, heareth us: (the pastors of the Church) …by this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” (Challoner) — The Church only, not every private man, hath to prove and discern spirits.

1Jn 4:2 By this is the Spirit of God known. He gives the new converts first general mark, by which they might have good grounds to think that the teachers they met with in those days had a good spirit, were of God, if they confessed and acknowledged Jesus Christ to have come from heaven and to have been made flesh, or made man; i.e. to be truly God and truly man. But if (ver. 3) they met with teachers of such a spirit as dissolveth Jesus,[1] by denying him either to be the Messias or to be truly God, or to be a true man, they might conclude for certain that such men had not a true spirit, but were heretics, antichrists, and forerunners of the great antichrist. Such, even in St. John’s time, was Simon the magician, who, according to St. Epiphanius, (hær. xxi. p. 55. Ed Petav.) pretended among his countrymen, the Samaritans, that he himself was God the Father, and among the Jews that he was God the Son, and that Jesus suffered death in appearance only. His disciple also, Meander, said he was sent from heaven for the salvation of men. See St. Epiphanius, hær xxii. p. 61. 3. Cerinthus, as also Carpocras, held that Jesus was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary, and also different from Christ. See St. Epiphanius, hær. xxxvii. and xxix. p. 102. and 110. 4. Ebion held much the same. See the same St. Epiphanius, hær. xxx. p. 142. These heretics and divers of their followers divided Jesus, and destroyed the faith and mystery of the incarnation. (Witham) — Every spirit which confesseth, &c. Not that the confession of this point of faith alone, is at all times and in all cases sufficient; but that with relation to that time, and for that part of the Christian doctrine, which was then particularly to be confessed, taught, and maintained against the heretics of those days, this was the most proper token by which the true teachers might be distinguished from the false. (Challoner)

1Jn 4:3 That dissolveth Jesus, viz. either by denying his humanity or his divinity. (Challoner) — This is antichrist;[2] i.e. such is the spirit of antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, or is to come in the latter times. — And he is now already in the world, not the chief and great antichrist, but his precursors, in whom he may be said to come. (Witham) — And he is now already in the world. Not in his person, but in his spirit and in his precursors. (Challoner)

1Jn 4:4 You…little children, born anew in Christ by baptism, have overcome him, (i.e. every such antichrist) not by your own strength, but by the grace of Christ, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world; i.e. the Spirit of God in you is above all your enemies. (Witham)

1Jn 4:5 They are of the world. Such antichrists and heretics are guided by a worldly spirit, teaching men to follow the corrupt customs and inclinations of the world and the flesh, therefore the world heareth them, and men are more easily seduced by them. (Witham)

1Jn 4:6 We (Christians) are of God, have received the Spirit; we, the apostles of Christ, were lawfully sent by him. — He that knoweth God, heareth us, &c. That is, they who love and serve God, and comply with the doctrine of his Son, Jesus Christ, hear and follow the doctrine which we were commissioned by him to teach. — He that is not of God, heareth us not. The are not of God, who refuse to hear and obey the voice of the Church and those whom Christ appointed to govern his Church, as hath been observed elsewhere. — By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Here St. John gives them the second general mark and rule, to preserve them and all Christians from errors and heresies to the end of the world. He that knoweth God, heareth us Apostles, whom he sent, and heareth our successors, invested with the same mission and authority, whom Christ sent, as his heavenly Father sent him, whom he appointed to govern his Church, and with whom he promised to remain to the end of the world. (Witham)
 
Prodigal_Son1 said:
Below comes from the 'Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary, again also in my computer Bible program.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank you very much for all the links. This should keep me busy for a little while. Nice computer program you have.

God bless.
 
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