1 BELOVED, do not trust every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are from God. For many false prophets have come out into the world.

2 By this we know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and no spirit that does not confess Jesus is from God. This is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard is coming into the world and is already in the world.

4 But you are of God, little children, and have conquered them, because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They belong to the world and for that reason they speak as the world speaks and the world listens to them.

6 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us: whoever is not of God does not listen to us. In this way we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and every one who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.

9 By this the love of God to us was made plain: that God sent his only Son into the world so that we may have life through him.

10 In this is love \'97 not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God has so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another God abides in us and his love is made perfect in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has imparted to us of his Spirit.

14 We have seen and we bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

16 We have come to know and have put our trust in the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him.

17 Thus love has been made perfect with us so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because as God is we also are in this world.

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has pain. He who fears has not been made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us.

20 If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21 This command we have from him, that he who loves God shall love his brother also.