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Testing the Spirits

¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.² By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^(a) is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is already in the world at this time.

⁴ You, little children, are from God 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. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them.⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit^(a) of truth and the spirit of deception.

Love Comes from God

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.⁹ This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.¹⁵ If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.¹⁶ And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

¹⁷ In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.¹⁹ We love because He first loved us.²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.²¹ And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.