1 John 4

1 Dear friends, don't trust every spirit, but put the spirits to the test to find out whether they're from God, for there are many false prophets out there in the world.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but put the spirits to the test to see whether they are from God; for many false teachers have gone out into the world.

2 How can you recognize God's Spirit? Every spirit that accepts Jesus Christ came with a human body is from God;

The test by which you may recognize the Spirit of God is that every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come as man is from God,

3 while every spirit that doesn't accept Jesus, that spirit isn't from God. In fact it is the spirit of the antichrist which you heard was coming, and which is already in the world.

and that no spirit is from God which does not acknowledge this about Jesus. Such is the spirit of the anti-Christ; of whose coming you have heard, and it is already in the world.

4 But you belong to God, my friends, and you have defeated them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

As for you, dear children, you are God's children, and have successfully resisted them; for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

5 They belong to the world, so they speak like people of the world, and the world listens to them.

They are the world's children, and so their language is that of the world, and the world listens to them. We are God's children.

6 We belong to God and whoever knows God listens to us, while whoever doesn't belong to God doesn't listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of deception.

The man who is beginning to know God listens to us, but he who is not a child of God does not listen to us. By this test we can distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

7 Dear friends, let's go on loving one another, for love comes from God. All those who love are born of God and know God.

Dear friends, let us love one another; for love has its origin in God, and every one who loves has become a child of God and is beginning to know God.

8 Those who don't love don't know God, for God is love.

He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.

9 How was God's love shown to us? God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could live through him.

God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.

10 This is love! It's not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his Son to be the reconciliation for our sins.

This is love indeed--we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11 Friends, if this is the way God loves us, we ought to love one another like this too.

Dear friends, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God. However, if we love one another then God lives in us, and his love is fulfilled in us.

No one has ever yet seen God. If we love one another, God continues in union with us, and His love in all its perfection is in our hearts.

13 How can we know that we live in him, and that he lives in us? He's given us the ability to love by his Spirit.

We can know that we are continuing in union with Him and that He is continuing in union with us, by the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit.

14 For we are witnesses to what we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

15 God lives in everyone who declares that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God--God continues in union with him, and he continues in union with God.

16 We have experienced and trusted in the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.

And, as for us, we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it. God is love, and he who continues to love continues in union with God, and God continues in union with him.

17 This is how love is made complete in us so that we can be confident on judgment day: by the fact that we live just like him in this world.

Our love will be manifested in all its perfection by our having complete confidence on the day of the Judgement; because just what He is, we also are in the world.

18 Where there is love there can be no fear. God loves us completely, and this love drives all our fears away. If we do fear, it's because we fear being punished, and this shows that we have not been fully re-made by the completeness of God's love.

Love has in it no element of fear; but perfect love drives away fear, because fear involves pain, and if a man gives way to fear, there is something imperfect in his love.

19 We love because he loved us first.

We love because God first loved us.

20 Anyone who says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, is a liar. Anyone who doesn't love a brother whom they can see, can't love God whom they can't see.

If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21 This is the command he gave to us: those who love God love their brothers and sisters too.

And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.