1 John 4

1 Dear friends, do not trust every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into 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 This is the way to recognize the Spirit of God: those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as come in the flesh have God’s Spirit,

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 a spirit that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus isn’t from God. Instead it is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that it was coming, and it is now 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 You, my children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such people as these, because he 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 Those people belong to the world and therefore they speak as the world speaks, 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 come from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; the person who does not come from God does not listen to us. This is how we distinguish the spirit of truth and 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 us love one another, because love comes from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows 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 do not love know nothing of God, for God is love.

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

9 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might 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 what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice 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 Dear friends, since God loved us in this way, we should love one another.

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

12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love reaches perfection within 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 We know that we live in him, and he lives in us, because he has given us a measure of 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 Moreover, we have seen for ourselves and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be 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 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God lives in them, 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 And so we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love; and whoever lives in love lives 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 the way love has reached its perfection among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Christ.

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 There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. So anyone who is afraid has not reached perfection in 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 God first loved us.

We love because God first loved us.

20 If someone says ‘I love God,’ and yet hates others, they are a liar. For the person who does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

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 Indeed, we have this command from Christ: Those who love God must also love each other.

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