¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

² By this you know the Spirit of God: every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world and therefore speak as of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.