| Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. | Beloved, do not trust every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. |
| This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. | This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, about whose coming you have been told, and that it is already in the world. |
| But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. | Dear children, you are from God and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. |
| Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. | Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. |
| But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. | Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. |
| God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. | God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. |
| This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. | This is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. |
| Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. | Beloved, since God loved us so much, we should love one another. |
| No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. | No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete in us. |
| And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. | This is how we can be certain that we abide in him and that he abides in us: he has given us a share in his Spirit. |
| All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. | God abides in anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and that person abides in God. |
| We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. | We have come to know and to believe in the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. |
| Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. | In love there is no fear; indeed, perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not yet achieved perfection in love. |
| We love each other because he loved us first. | Therefore, we love because he first loved us. |
| If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? | If someone says, “I love God,” but at the same time hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love the brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. |
| And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. | This is the commandment we have received from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. |
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