4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits ^mto determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has ⁿcome in the flesh ^ois from God. ^p³But every spirit who does not confess Jesus ^qis not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; ^ryou have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

⁴You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you ^sis greater than the one who is in the world. ^t⁵They are from the world. ^uTherefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; ^vanyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. ^w

Knowing God through Love

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God ^xand knows God. ⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: ^yGod sent ^zHis One and Only Son ^ainto the world so that we might live ^bthrough Him. ¹⁰Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us ^cand sent His Son to be the ^dpropitiation ^efor our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. ^f¹²No one has ever seen God. ^g^hIf we love one another, God remains in ⁱus and His love is perfected in us.

¹³This is how we know that we remain in Him ^jand He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. ^k¹⁴And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son ^las the world’s Savior. ¹⁵Whoever confesses ^mⁿthat Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

¹⁷In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, ^ofor we are as He is in this world. ^p¹⁸There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, ^qbecause fear involves punishment. ^rSo the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. ^s¹⁹We love ^tbecause He first loved us. ^u

Keeping God’s Commands

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, ^vhe is a liar. ^wFor the person who does not love his brother ^xhe has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. ^y²¹And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

n4:2 Or confesses Jesus to be the Christ
q4:3 Other read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh
y4:9 Or revealed in us
d4:10 Or a
g4:12 Since God is an infinite being, no one can see Him in His absolute essential nature; Ex 33:18–23.
i4:12 Or remains among
m4:15 Or acknowledges
r4:18 Or fear has its own punishment or torment
t4:19 Other add Him
y4:20 Other read has seen, how is he able to love … seen? (as a question)

Cross references

m4:1 1Th 5:21
o4:2 Jn 1:14; Php 2:7; 3:3
p4:2 1Co 12:3
r4:3 1Jn 2:18, 22; 2Jn 7
s4:4 Rm 8:31; Col 1:27; 1Jn 3:20
t4:4 Jn 12:31
u4:5 Jn 17:6; 2Pt 2:20
v4:6 Jn 8:47
w4:6 Mk 13:5–6; 1Co 2:12; 1Tm 4:1
x4:7 1Jn 2:29
z4:9 Mk 9:37
a4:9 Jn 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18
b4:9 Jn 10:28
c4:10 Jn 3:16
e4:10 2Co 5:21; 1Jn 2:2
f4:11 Jn 13:14; 15:12; Rm 13:8; 1Th 4:9; 1Pt 1:22
h4:12 Ex 33:20
j4:13 Jn 15:4–7; 1Jn 2:6, 24, 27–28; 3:6, 24; 4:15–16
k4:13 Rv 3:22
l4:14 Rm 1:3
n4:15 Jn 9:22; Php 2:6
o4:17 Mt 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:36; 2Pt 2:9; 3:7; Jd 6
p4:17 Jn 14:10–11; 15:9–10; 17:11, 15, 18
q4:18 Rm 8:15
s4:18 Eph 4:11–16
u4:19 2Th 2:13
v4:20 1Jn 2:9, 11; 3:15
w4:20 1Jn 1:10
x4:20 1Jn 2:10; 3:10, 14–17