In 4:4 John continues, “You are out of God, little children, and you have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” The believers are “out of God” because they have been begotten of God (4:7; 2:29; 3:9).
In verse 4 those who have been overcome are the false prophets (v. 1), the antichrists (v. 3), those who taught heresy concerning Christ’s Person. The believers have overcome them by abiding in the truth concerning Christ’s deity and concerning His humanity through divine conception, according to the teaching of the divine anointing (2:27).
In verse 4, John tells the believers that He who is in them is greater than he who is in the world. The One in the believers is the Triune God, who dwells in the believers as the all-inclusive, life-giving, anointing Spirit, and who strengthens us from within with all the rich elements of the Triune God (Eph. 3:16-19). Such a One is much greater and stronger than Satan, the evil spirit.
The words “he who is in the world” refer to Satan, the fallen angel. Satan usurps fallen mankind as the evil spirit and operates in evil persons, who are the components of his world system. Such a one is less than the Triune God and weaker than He is.
In verse 5 John goes on to say, “They are out of the world; therefore they speak out of the world, and the world hears them.” In this verse “they” denotes the false prophets, the antichrists. Both the heretics and the heresies concerning Christ’s Person have their source in the satanic world system. Hence, the people who are the components of this evil system listen to them and follow them.
In verse 6 John concludes, “We are out of God: he who knows God hears us; he who is not out of God does not hear us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” The apostles, the believers, and the truth which they believe and teach concerning Christ have their source in God; they are out of God. Hence, the God-knowing people, who have been begotten of God (v. 7), listen to us and stay with us. The worldlings are not out of God because they have not been begotten of God. Hence, they do not listen to us.
Literally, the Greek words rendered “from this” in verse 6 mean “out of this.” “This” refers to what has been mentioned in verses 5 and 6. From the fact that the heretics and what they speak out from their spirit, actuated by the spirit of deception, are out from the world, and that we and what we speak out from our spirit, motivated by the Spirit of truth, are out from God, we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. This implies that the Holy Spirit of truth is one with our truth-speaking spirit, and that the evil spirit of deception is one with the heretics’ deception-speaking spirit.
In verse 6 John speaks of both the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. The Spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The spirit of deception is Satan, the evil spirit, the spirit of falsehood (Eph. 2:2). The word “truth” in 4:6 denotes the divine reality revealed in the New Testament, especially here concerning the divine incarnation of the Lord Jesus, which the Spirit of God testifies (1 John 4:2). This reality is in contrast to the deception of the evil spirit, the spirit of the antichrist that denies the divine incarnation of Jesus (v. 3).