1 John 4

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

2You know God's Spirit in this way: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

3And every spirit that does not confess Jesus as from God is not from God; this is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and even now it is already in the world.

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

5They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world hears them.

6We are from God. Whoever knows God hears us; anyone not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God, and everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9This is how God's love was revealed in us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as propitiation for our sins.

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

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

13By this we know that we live in him and he lives in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son, 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 trust the love that God has in us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17In this love has been perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

18No fear exists in love, but perfect love expels fear, because fear involves punishment; whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

19We love because he first loved us.

20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21And we have this commandment from him, that whoever loves God also loves his brother.