Testing the Spirits

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. ² By this you will know the Spirit^* of God: Every spirit^* that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit^* that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^* which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.

⁴ You, little children, are from God and have overcome^* them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit^* of truth and the spirit^* of deception.

Love Comes from God

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵ If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like^* Him.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives^* out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because He first loved us.

²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.