Some false teachers were promoting Docetism, the belief that Christ only seemed or appeared to be human and to possess actual flesh. The apostle John had already encountered a similar denial of Christ’s flesh in the communities to which he had written his first epistle. He had dealt with it seriously: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God,” he told his readers as he warned them about false prophets. “Every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but