Testing the Spirits

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesusa is not of God, and this is that of the antichrist, which you heard that is coming, and now is already in the world.

4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world. 5They are of the world; because of this they speak from out of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are of God. The one knowing God listens to us. He who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spiritb of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Love Comes from God

7Beloved, we should love one another, because love is from God; and everyone loving has been born from God and knows God. 8The one not loving has not known God, because God is love.

9In this the love of God has been revealed among us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time; if we should love one another, God abides in us, and His love is having been perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us: because He has given to us from out of His Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

15Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16And we have come to know and have come to believe the love that God has as to us. God is love, and the one abiding in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17In this, love has been perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment that, just as He is, also are we in this world.

18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment; and the one fearing has not been perfected in love. 19We love because He first loved us.

20If anyone should say, “I love God,” and should hate his brother, he is a liar. For the one not loving his brother, whom he has seen, is not able to love God, whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one loving God should love his brother also.