1Dear friends, do not believe every spiritual message, but test them to see if they come from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come as a human being is from God.
3But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ has come as a human being is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and in fact, it is already in the world.
4My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated these spirits, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5They belong to the world. That's why they speak from the world's perspective, and the world listens to them.
6We belong to God. Anyone who knows God listens to us. Anyone who does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.
7Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9God's love was shown to us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10This is what love is: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes away our sins.
11Dear friends, since God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he lives in us, because he has given us his Spirit.
14We have seen and confirm that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15Anyone who says that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them, and they live in God.
16We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them.
17Love has been made perfect among us in this way: that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like him.
18There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19We love him because he first loved us.
20If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates their brother or sister, they are a liar. For if they do not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, how can they love God, whom they have not seen?
21We have this command from him: the one who loves God must also love their brother or sister.