Test the Spirits

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.[#1Th 5:21; #2Pe 2:1; 1Jn 2:18]

²This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the body is from God,[#1Co 12:3; #Jn 1:14]

³and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the body is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world.[#1Jn 2:18, 22; 2Jn 7]

⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.[#Jn 12:31; 1Jn 4:16]

⁵They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.[#Jn 3:31; 17:14]

⁶We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.[#1Co 14:37; #Jn 14:17]

God Is Love

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.[#1Jn 2:29]

⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.[#2Co 13:11; 1Jn 4:16]

⁹In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only Son into the world, that we might live through Him.[#Jn 3:16; 1Jn 4:10; 5:11]

¹⁰In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.[#1Pe 3:18; 1Jn 3:1; #1Jn 2:2]

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another.

¹²No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.[#Jn 1:18; 1Ti 6:16; #1Jn 2:5]

¹³We know that we live in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit.[#1Jn 3:24]

¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.[#Jn 1:14; 4:42]

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.[#Ro 10:9; 1Jn 5:5]

¹⁶And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.[#1Jn 3:1, 24]

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

¹⁷In this way God’s love is perfected in us, so that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.[#1Jn 2:5; #1Jn 2:28]

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love.[#Ro 8:15; 2Ti 1:7]

¹⁹We love Him because He first loved us.[#Lk 7:47; 1Jn 4:10]

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?[#1Jn 2:4; #1Jn 3:17]

²¹We have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.[#Lev 19:18; 1Jn 3:11]