1 Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit which confesses him not, is not from God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming, and that now it is already in the world.
4 My little children, you are of God and have conquered them; because he that is within you is greater than he that is in the world.
5 They are of the world, and for this reason they speak as of the world, and the world listens to them.
6 But you are of God. He who is beginning to know God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we may distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loves us a child of God.
8 He who does not love, does not know God; for God is love.
9 In this was the love of God clearly shown toward us, by his sending his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.
11 If God so loved us, beloved, we also ought to love one another.
12 No man has ever gazed on God; but if we love one another, God ever abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we come to know that we are abiding in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit;
14 and we have beheld and do testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 If any man confesses that "Jesus is the Son of God." God is abiding in that man, and he in God.
16 And we do know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love; and he who is abiding in love is abiding in God, and God is abiding in him.
17 In this is love made perfect with us, so that we may have cheerful confidence in the Day of Judgment, because we are living in this world as He lives.
18 Fear does not exist in love; but love, when it is perfect, drives out fear. For fear has always torment, and he who has fear is not yet perfected in love.
19 We love because He loved us first.
20 If any one says, "I love God," and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And we have this command from God: HE WHO LOVES GOD IS TO LOVE HIS BROTHER ALSO.