The outline to these verses is to be found in the emphasized pronouns which begin verses 4, 5 and 6. With the exception of verse 4 this is preserved even in most of the English versions. Verse 4 begins with “you.” It is a reference to those who are of God, that is, to Christians. John says two things of these persons.
First, he says that they have overcome the false teachers. He is not referring to a physical contest by these words, nor even to a struggle in the area of morality. It is rather an intellectual battle in which the Christians have been victorious. The false teachers had been seeking to deceive these believers, but they had not succeeded. Merely by testing them and refusing to be taken in by their lies, the Christians have conquered.
Second, John indicates why the Christians have been victorious. It is not that they were stronger in themselves, for they probably were not. The Gnostics were the ones who were the intellectual giants. Rather it was that God was in the Christians and that He who was in the Christians is stronger than He who is in the world. This last phrase recalls the statement of Elisha to his young servant when the latter was terrified at the armies of Syria who had surrounded them: “Fear not; for they who are with us are more than they who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). In this case the reference was to the angels of the Lord who had surrounded Elisha.
Verse 5 begins with “they.” This refers to the false teachers who, John says, are of the world because what they say is of the world. It is the world’s philosophy even though it may be dressed in Christian language and be presented by those who claim to be Christian teachers.
The last verse, verse 6, begins with “we.” This “we” is not the same as the “you” who “are of God” in verse 4. In verse 4 the “you” is all Christians. In this verse “we” must refer, not to all Christians, but to the apostles as the direct counterpart to the false teachers of verse 4. In other words, this “we” is the same as the “we” that begins the letter, which verses insist most strongly upon the apostolic teaching and testimony. What does this mean? It simply means that those who are of God and those who are of the world may be distinguished by their response or lack of response to the apostolic teaching. “He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. By this know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” If this were a mere individual talking, the claim would be presumptuous. But it is not. This is one of the apostles citing the collective testimony of all the apostles and making that testimony the measure of truth and sound doctrine.
The tragedy of our time is that we have not enough men and women to proclaim and defend that doctrine. So the truth is not clearly defined, and the way is not clearly illuminated. The doctrine of the apostles, the only true doctrine of the church, illuminates it; and the incarnation of God’s Christ defines and gives a focal point to that doctrine. It is for us to determine whether or not we believe that doctrine and, if we do, to respond to it. There are not three ways, according to the apostle. There are not four, or five, or more. There are only two ways: the way of truth and the way of error, the way of Christ and the way of antichrist. We are called to serve Christ, and those who are truly of God will do so.