1 John 4:1-16 ▼

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits if they are of God: because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 In this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God:

3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard that he is coming; and now he is already in the world.

4 You are of God, little children, and you have conquered them; because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They are of the world: on this account they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

6 We are of God: the one knowing 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 with divine love: because divine love is of God; and the one loving with divine love has been born of God, and knows God.

8 The one not loving with divine love does not know God; because God is divine love.

9 In this the divine love of God has been made manifest in us, because God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we may live through him.

10 In him is divine love, not because we loved God with divine love, but because he loved us with divine love, and sent his Son an expiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us with divine love, we ought also to love one another with divine love.

12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another with divine love, God abides in us, and his divine love has been made perfect in us.

13 In this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.

14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent forth his Son the Saviour of the world.

15 Whosoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, in him God abides, and he in God.

16 And we have known and we have believed the divine love which God has in us. God is divine love; and the one abiding in divine love abides in God, and God abides in him.