| New King James Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. | 1Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. |
| 2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, | 2This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. |
| 3and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. | 3But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. |
| 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. | 4But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. |
| 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. | 5Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. |
| 6We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. | 6But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. Loving One Another |
| 7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. | 7Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. |
| 8He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. | 8But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. |
| 9In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. | 9God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. |
| 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. | 10This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. |
| 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. | 11Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. |
| 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. | 12No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. |
| 13By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. | 13And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. |
| 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. | 14Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. |
| 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. | 15All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. |
| 16And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. | 16We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. |
| 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. | 17And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. |
| 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. | 18Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. |
| 19We love Him because He first loved us. | 19We love each other because he loved us first. |
| 20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? | 20If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? |
| 21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. | 21And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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