diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/json/JsonPropertyAccessor.java b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/json/JsonPropertyAccessor.java
index a8ff685da5..acf843d239 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/json/JsonPropertyAccessor.java
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/json/JsonPropertyAccessor.java
@@ -70,7 +70,14 @@ public class JsonPropertyAccessor implements PropertyAccessor {
 
 	@Override
 	public boolean canRead(EvaluationContext context, Object target, String name) throws AccessException {
-		JsonNode node = asJson(target);
+		JsonNode node;
+		try {
+			node = asJson(target);
+		}
+		catch (AccessException e) {
+			// Cannot parse - treat as not a JSON
+			return false;
+		}
 		Integer index = maybeIndex(name);
 		if (node instanceof ArrayNode) {
 			return index != null;
diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests-context.xml b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests-context.xml
index da47bf92d4..149ed5901c 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests-context.xml
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests-context.xml
@@ -11,15 +11,22 @@
 
 	<object-to-json-transformer id="defaultTransformer" input-channel="defaultObjectMapperInput"/>
 
-	<object-to-json-transformer id="emptyContentTypeTransformer" input-channel="customObjectMapperInput" content-type=""/>
+	<object-to-json-transformer id="emptyContentTypeTransformer" input-channel="customObjectMapperInput"
+								content-type=""/>
 
-	<object-to-json-transformer id="overriddenContentTypeTransformer" input-channel="customObjectMapperInput" content-type="text/xml"/>
+	<object-to-json-transformer id="overriddenContentTypeTransformer" input-channel="customObjectMapperInput"
+								content-type="text/xml"/>
 
 	<object-to-json-transformer id="customJsonObjectMapperTransformer" input-channel="customJsonObjectMapperInput"
 								object-mapper="customJsonObjectMapper"/>
 
 	<object-to-json-transformer id="jsonNodeTransformer" input-channel="jsonNodeInput" result-type="NODE"/>
 
-	<beans:bean id="customJsonObjectMapper" class="org.springframework.integration.json.ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests$CustomJsonObjectMapper"/>
+	<beans:bean id="customJsonObjectMapper"
+				class="org.springframework.integration.json.ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests$CustomJsonObjectMapper"/>
+
+	<spel-property-accessors>
+		<beans:bean id="json" class="org.springframework.integration.json.JsonPropertyAccessor"/>
+	</spel-property-accessors>
 
 </beans:beans>
diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests.java b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests.java
index e515b05a28..7977515789 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests.java
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/json/ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2019 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2021 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
-import org.junit.Test;
-import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
 import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
@@ -38,8 +37,8 @@ import org.springframework.integration.test.util.TestUtils;
 import org.springframework.messaging.Message;
 import org.springframework.messaging.MessageChannel;
 import org.springframework.messaging.MessageHeaders;
-import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
-import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
+import org.springframework.messaging.support.GenericMessage;
+import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringJUnitConfig;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
 
@@ -48,10 +47,10 @@ import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
  * @author Oleg Zhurakousky
  * @author Gary Russell
  * @author Artem Bilan
+ *
  * @since 2.0
  */
-@ContextConfiguration
-@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
+@SpringJUnitConfig
 public class ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests {
 
 	@Autowired
@@ -69,6 +68,9 @@ public class ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests {
 	@Autowired
 	private DefaultMessageBuilderFactory defaultMessageBuilderFactory;
 
+	@Autowired
+	private StandardEvaluationContext evaluationContext;
+
 	@Test
 	public void testContentType() {
 		ObjectToJsonTransformer transformer =
@@ -174,6 +176,14 @@ public class ObjectToJsonTransformerParserTests {
 		assertThat(expression.getValue(evaluationContext, payload, Boolean.class)).isTrue();
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testReflectionBeforeJsonString() {
+		Expression exp = new SpelExpressionParser().parseExpression("payload.class.name");
+		assertThat(exp.getValue(this.evaluationContext, new GenericMessage<>("foo"))).isEqualTo(String.class.getName());
+		exp = new SpelExpressionParser().parseExpression("payload.foo");
+		assertThat(exp.getValue(this.evaluationContext, new GenericMessage<>("{\"foo\" : \"bar\"}"))).isEqualTo("bar");
+	}
+
 	static class CustomJsonObjectMapper implements JsonObjectMapper<Object, Object> {
 
 		@Override