1 John 4

1Dear friends, do not believe just any spirit; test the spirits to find out whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out and are now in the world. 2Here is how you recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ as one who has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4As for you, dear children, you belong to God, and you have already won the victory over them, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. 5They belong to the world, so what they say comes from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. That is how we tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.

7Dear friends, let us keep loving one another, for love has its source in God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows him. 8The one who does not love has never known God, for God is love. 9This is how God’s love was made visible among us: God has sent his one and only Son into the world, so that through him we may have life. 10This is where love is found: not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since this is how God loved us, we too should love one another. 12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has reached completion in us.

13This is how we know that we remain in him and he remains in us: he has given us from his own Spirit. 14We have seen it with our own eyes, and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15When anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them, and they remain in God. 16We ourselves have come to know the love God has for us, and we believe it. God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God, and God remains in them. 17In this way love has been brought to completion among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, for just as he is, so are we in this world. 18Love has no room for fear; instead, complete love throws fear out, because fear has to do with punishment, and anyone who is afraid has not been brought to completion in love. 19We love because he loved us first. 20If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a brother or sister, that person is a liar. For anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, is not able to love God, whom they have not seen. 21And this is the command we have received from him: the one who loves God is to love a brother or sister as well.