Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding cannot be scrutinized.
You have heard that it was said of old: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that anyone who looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and listened to my cry for mercy, because he has inclined his ear to me on the day when I called out to him.
Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard, I have seen your tears. I will heal you today, and the day after tomorrow you will go up to the temple of the Lord.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.”
And I heard a loud voice proclaim from the throne: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with mankind; he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be death. Neither will there be any mourning or crying or pain, for the old order has passed away.”
However, the one who looks intently at the perfect law of freedom and perseveres—not forgetting what he has heard but putting it into practice—will be blessed in everything he does.
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.