1 John 4:4

Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

Ye ... Stott pointed out that 1 John 4:4; 1 John 4:5; and 1 John 4:6 all begin with an emphatic personal pronoun: "(1 John 4:4) ye ([@humeis]), (1 John 4:5) they ([@autoi]), and (1 John 4:6) we ([@hemeis])."[17] These refer respectively to (1 John 4:4) John's readers in general, (1 John 4:5) to the false teachers, and (1 John 4:6) to John the apostle and other apostolic witnesses of Christ and the revelation of his doctrine to mankind. This distinction is important.

Ye have overcome ... This ought to be understood as a statement of fact. "By refusing to listen to the false teachers, the sheep have overcome them, conquered them; the seducers have gone out, unable to hold their own within the fold."[18]

He that is in the world ... is a reference to the devil, "the prince of this world."[19] It also includes the meaning that the indwelling God in Christian hearts is greater than any particular advocate of Satan's teaching.

Morris was impressed that, "Apart from Revelation, where it is used 17 times, 1John uses the verb to overcome more often than any other book (6 times)."[20]

He that is in you ... This is a clear reference to the fact of God indwelling, or being "in" Christians, a truth which is no different in any manner from Christ or the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. See more on this in my Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, pp. 97-99.

[17] John R. W. Stott, op. cit., p. 157.

[18] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22,1John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 103.

[19] W. N. Sinclair, op. cit., p. 487.

[20] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1267.