I found Gordon Fee’s reading of Paul’s reference to the gift of the “discerning of spirits” in 1 Corinthians 12:10 to be a bit surprising. In God’s Empowering Presence [1] he argues that we have been reading this phrase through the lens of 1 Jn 4.1 when we ought to read it through 1 Thes 5.20-21:
1 Jn 4.1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (ESV).
1 Thes 5.20-21 Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good (ESV).
He gives legitimate reasons for this argument:
(1) Both 1 Thes. 5.20-21 and 1 Cor. 14.29 are references to prophecy in the church that need to be tested/discerned.
(2) Paul has been using Spirit/spirit language throughout 1 Cor, which means, essentially, that there are some places where Paul is referring to the interface between the Divine Spirit and human spirit (e.g. 1 Cor. 5.3-4).
(3) We may add both are Pauline.
For Fee the discerning of the S/spirits is the gift of the ability to determine whether or not a particular prophecy given in a gathering came from the Holy Spirit or from the person’s human spirit. For the author of 1 Jn the difference is between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits.
Do you agree with Fee’s assessment?
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[1] 171-172.
the archives near Emmaus 
I guess I’m in basic agreement although I’d draw a more general principle and apply it to all conduct and not prophecy alone. A while ago I mentioned on my blog how I understood the discerning of spirits to be the ability to tell the difference between when the Spirit of God; the human spirit; or a demonic spirit is at work. That seems similar to what Fee is saying.
Brian, I don’t think it’s so much ‘Holy Spirit versus evil spirits’ in 1 John as it is ‘Holy Spirit versus spirit of the Antichrist.’ The “every spirit that confesses . . .” is probably better seen as “every human person that confesses . . .” What they confess is dependent on their source – that is, their source is either God (confession that Jesus Christ came in the flesh) or their source is the Antichrist (confession that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh).
I agree with you about conduct. In all the epistles, there’s great emphasis on what the false teachers/prophets do as much as what they teach.
I agree with everything Fee says. : )
So you would see 1 Jn as saying something similar to 1 Cor?
If we’re using Fee’s understanding as our basis for 1 Corinthians, then no. From what I read above, Fee is highlighting Holy Spirit versus human spirit. But what I get from John is Holy Spirit versus Antichrist spirit. While the gift of 1 Corinthians 13 may be applicable to both, I think Paul meant it in the context of building up the church, whereas I see 1 John as pertaining to false doctrine. Maybe there is overlap between building up the church and battling false doctrine. But at this point, they lean more toward exclusive for me than inclusive.
What do you see as being the difference between evil spirits and Antichrist spirit? In 4.1 the author says to test the spirits, plural. Do you see there being evil spirits who are not Antichrist? Or do you see this as referring to Antichrist human spirits (which may be “evil” but not “demonic”)? I am a bit confused by the distinction being made between evil spirits and Antichrist spirits.
Thanks for the clarifying questions. Basically, I don’t see “spirits” here as being reference to metaphysical entities (or whatever spirits might be). I see it as synonymous with human persons, who receive what they confess from either the Spirit of God or the spirit of Antichrist. In 1 John 4:2b, we have:
every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
While that this could refer to good spirits (as in metaphysical entities) that make the right confession, I think it makes more sense to refer to a human person. Same thing with the spirits that don’t confess Jesus come in the flesh.
Does this help make more sense of what I’m saying?