1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2By this the Spirit of God is known: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

3and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world.

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

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

6We are of God. He that knows God hears us; he that is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Knowing God Through Love

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; and everyone that loves has been born of God and knows God.

8He that does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9By this the love of God is manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, in order that we might live through Him.

10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11Beloved, if in this way God loved us, indeed we ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love

12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

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

14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16And we have come to know and believe the love which God has in us. God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The Consummation of Love

17By this love has been perfected with us: that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because just as He is, we also are in this world.

18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. But he that fears has not been made perfect in love.

19We love Him because He first loved us.

Obedience by Faith

20If anyone claims, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how is it possible for him to love God whom he has not seen?

21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God should love his brother also.