Test the spirits

1Dear ones, 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: ⁵²every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ as having come in flesh is of God,

3and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ ⁵³as having come in flesh ⁵⁴is not of God; indeed, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming—actually, it is already in the world right now. ⁵⁵

4Dear children, you are of God and have overcome them, ⁵⁶because He who is in you is greater than the one in the world. ⁵⁷

5They are of the world; that is why they speak of the world, and the world listens to them.

6We 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 the Truth and the spirit of the deception. ⁵⁸

Love one another

7Dear ones, we must love one another, because the love is of God and everyone who loves ⁵⁹has been begotten by God and knows God.

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

9God's love was made real within us by this: God sent His only begotten Son into the world in order that we might live through Him.

10In this is the love, not that we loved God but that He loved us—He even sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins. ⁶⁰

11Dear ones, since God loved us in this way we are obligated to love one another, really.

As He is so are we in this world

12No one has ever looked at God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is being perfected in us.

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

14Yes, we have observed and do 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. ⁶¹

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

17The love is perfected with us for this: that we may have confidence in the Day of judgment, ⁶²since just as He is so are we in this world. ⁶³

There is no fear in love

18There is no fear in love; rather perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment; so he who fears has not been perfected in love. ⁶⁴

19We love Him ⁶⁵because He first loved us.

20If anyone says, “I love God,” while hating his brother, he is a liar. Well, how can he love God whom he has not seen, while not loving his brother whom he has seen?

21Indeed, this commandment we have from Him: he who loves God must love his brother also.