The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spiritsa to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ hasb come in the fleshc is from God.d 3But every spirit who does not confess Jesuse is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist;f you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
4You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in youg is greater than the one who is in the world.h 5They are from the •world.i Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;j anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.k
Knowing God through Love
7Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of Godl and knows God. 8The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way:m God sentn His •One and Only Sono into the world so that we might livep through Him. 10Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved usq and sent His Son to be ther •propitiations for our sins. 11Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.t 12No one has ever seen God.u, v If we love one another, God remains inw us and His love is perfected in us.
13This is how we know that we remain in Himx and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.y 14And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Sonz as the world’s Savior. 15Whoever confessesaa, ab that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. 16And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,ac for we are as He is in this world.ad 18There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,ae because fear involves punishment.af So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.ag 19We loveah because He first loved us.ai
Keeping God’s Commands
20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother,aj he is a liar.ak For the person who does not love his brotheral he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.am 21And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.
Footnotes:
a. 4:1 1Th 5:21
b. 4:2 Or confesses Jesus to be the Christ
c. 4:2 Jn 1:14; Php 2:7; 3:3
d. 4:2 1Co 12:3
e. 4:3 Other mss read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh
f. 4:3 1Jn 2:18,22; 2Jn 7
g. 4:4 Rm 8:31; Col 1:27; 1Jn 3:20
h. 4:4 Jn 12:31
i. 4:5 Jn 17:6; 2Pt 2:20
j. 4:6 Jn 8:47
k. 4:6 Mk 13:5-6; 1Co 2:12; 1Tm 4:1
l. 4:7 1Jn 2:29
m. 4:9 Or revealed in us
n. 4:9 Mk 9:37
o. 4:9 Jn 1:14,18; 3:16,18
p. 4:9 Jn 10:28
q. 4:10 Jn 3:16
r. 4:10 Or a
s. 4:10 2Co 5:21; 1Jn 2:2
t. 4:11 Jn 13:14; 15:12; Rm 13:8; 1Th 4:9; 1Pt 1:22
u. 4:12 Since God is an infinite being, no one can see Him in His absolute essential nature; Ex 33:18-23.
v. 4:12 Ex 33:20
w. 4:12 Or remains among
x. 4:13 Jn 15:4-7; 1Jn 2:6,24,27-28; 3:6,24; 4:15-16
y. 4:13 Rv 3:22
z. 4:14 Rm 1:3
aa. 4:15 Or acknowledges
ab. 4:15 Jn 9:22; Php 2:6
ac. 4:17 Mt 10:15; 11:22,24; 12:36; 2Pt 2:9; 3:7; Jd 6
ad. 4:17 Jn 14:10-11; 15:9-10; 17:11,15,18
ae. 4:18 Rm 8:15
af. 4:18 Or fear has its own punishment or torment
ag. 4:18 Eph 4:11-16
ah. 4:19 Other mss add Him
ai. 4:19 2Th 2:13
aj. 4:20 1Jn 2:9,11; 3:15
ak. 4:20 1Jn 1:10
al. 4:20 1Jn 2:10; 3:10,14-17
am. 4:20 Other mss read has seen, how is he able to love . . . seen? (as a question)
