1 JohnChapter 4
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1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they come from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2Here is how you will know God's Spirit. Every spirit that says Jesus Christ has come in a human body is from God. 3But every spirit that does not say this about Jesus is not from God. That is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that it is coming. And it is already in the world even now. 4Little children, you are from God, and you have won over them. For the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They belong to the world. So they speak the way the world thinks, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies. 7Dear friends, let's love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9Here is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world. He did this so that we could live through him. 10This is what love is. It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we should also love one another. 12No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. And his love is made complete in us. 13Here is how we know that we live in him and he lives in us. He has given us his Spirit. 14And we have seen and we tell others that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone says that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he lives in God. 16And we have come to know the love God has for us, and we believe it. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. 17In this way, love has been made complete among us. So we can be bold on the day of judgment. For in this world we are just like him. 18There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been made complete in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Someone may say, "I love God," but hate his brother or sister. That person is a liar. He has seen his brother or sister, but does not love them. So he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother and sister.