1 John 4
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
3 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming, and it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and you have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; that is why they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God; whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love has not known God, because God is love.
9 This is how God's love was revealed among us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we too ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
16 And we have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this, love has been made complete among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and whoever is afraid is not complete in love.
19 We love because he loved us first.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And we have this command from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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