Chapter 4

1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2  Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God; 3  and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.

4  Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 5  They are of the world; for this reason they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6  We are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7  Beloved, let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God. 8  He that loves not has not known God; for God is love. 9  Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins. 11  Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12  No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13  Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, that he has given to us of his Spirit.

14  And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world. 15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16  And we have known and have believed the love which God has to us. God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

17  Herein has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as he is, we also are in this world. 18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has torment, and he that fears has not been made perfect in love. 19  We love because he has first loved us. 20  If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21  And this commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother.