1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they be from God; because many false prophets are gone forth into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God.
3 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus, is not from God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, which you have heard that it comes, and now is in the world already.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because he is greater, who is with you, than he who is with the world.
5 They are of the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world hearkens to them.
6 We are of God: he who know God, hearkens to us; he who is not of God, hearkens not to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is from God: and every one who loves, has been begotten by God, and knows God.
8 He who does not love, does not know God; for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested to us, that God sent forth his Son, the only begotten, into the world, that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent forth his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we, also, ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God, at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13 By this, we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 Now we have seen, and bear testimony, that the Father has sent forth his Son, to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whoever will confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known, and believed the love which God has in us. God is love; wherefore, he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.
17 By this, the love has been perfected in us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment: therefore, he who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If any one say, Indeed I love God, and yet hate his brother, he is a liar: for he who loves not his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen?
21 Moreover, this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God, loves his brother, also.