CHAPTER 4

Test the Spirits

1 aBeloved, do not believe every bspirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because cmany false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: aevery spirit that bconfesses that cJesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and every spirit that adoes not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the bantichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and cnow it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, alittle children, and bhave overcome them; because cgreater is He who is in you than dhe who is in the world.

5 aThey are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them.

6 aWe are from God. bThe one who knows God hears us; cthe one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know dthe spirit of truth and ethe spirit of error.

God Is Love

7 aBeloved, let us blove one another, for love is from God; and ceveryone who loves has been 1dborn of God and eknows God.

8 The one who does not love does not know God, because aGod is love.

9 By this the love of God was manifested 1ain us, that bGod has sent His 2only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

10 In this is love, anot that we have loved God, but that bHe loved us and sent His Son to be cthe propitiation for our sins.

11 aBeloved, if God so loved us, bwe also ought to love one another.

12 aNo one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His blove is perfected in us.

13 aBy this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

14 We have beheld and abear witness that the Father has bsent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 aWhoever confesses that bJesus is the Son of God, God cabides in him, and he in God.

16 aAnd we have come to know and have believed the love which God has bin us. cGod is love, and the one who dabides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this, alove has been perfected with us, so that we may have bconfidence in cthe day of judgment, because das He is, so also are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but aperfect love casts out fear, because fear 1involves punishment, and the one who fears is not bperfected in love.

19 aWe love, because He first loved us.

20 aIf someone says, “I love God,” and bhates his brother, he is a cliar; for dthe one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, ecannot love God whom he has not seen.

21 And athis commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God bshould love his brother also.