Testing the Spirits

¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, as to whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard will come, and even now already, is in the world.

⁴ You are of God, little children, 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. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of deceit.

God is Love

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹ By this, God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is what love is: it is 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 loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷ In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so we are in this world.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love him, because he first loved us.

²⁰ If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother

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