1 John 4 Dear ones, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

WPNT⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Dear ones, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this the Spirit of God is known: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ as having come in flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as having come in flesh is not of God; indeed, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming—actually, it is already in the world right now. ⁴ Dear children, you are of God and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than the one in the world. ⁵ They are of the world; that’s why they speak of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are of God: he who knows God listens to us; he who is not of God doesn’t listen to us—by this we know the Spirit of the Truth and the spirit of the deception. ⁷ Dear ones, we must love one another, because the love is of God and everyone who loves has been begotten by God and knows God. ⁸ He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. ⁹ God’s love was made real within us by this: God sent His only begotten Son into the world in order that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is the love, not that we loved God but that He loved us—He even sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Dear ones, since God loved us in this way we are obligated to love one another, really. ¹² No one has ever looked at God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is being perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ Yes, we have observed and do testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. ¹⁶ Yes, we have come to know and believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in the love abides in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ The love is perfected with us for this: that we may have confidence in the Day of judgment, since just as He is so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; rather perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment; so he who fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God”, while hating his brother, he is a liar. Well, how can he love God whom he hasn’t seen, while not loving his brother whom he has seen? ²¹ Indeed, this commandment we have from Him: he who loves God must love his brother also.