4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, 1 but test 2 the spirits 3 to determine 4 if they are from God, because many false prophets 5 have gone out into the world. 4:2 By this 6 you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses 7 Jesus as the Christ 8 who has come in the flesh is from God, 4:3 but 9 every spirit that does not confess 10 Jesus 11 is not from God, and this is the spirit 12 of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.
4:4 You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, 13 because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world’s perspective and the world listens to them. 4:6 We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but 14 whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this 15 we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. 16
4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because 17 love is from God, and everyone who loves 18 has been fathered 19 by God and knows God. 4:8 The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 20 4:9 By this 21 the love of God 22 is revealed in us: 23 that God has sent his one and only 24 Son into the world so that we may live through him. 4:10 In this 25 is love: not that 26 we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice 27 for our sins.
4:11 Dear friends, if God so loved us, then 28 we also ought to love one another. 29 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. 30 If we love one another, God resides 31 in us, and his love is perfected in us. 32 4:13 By this 33 we know that we reside in God 34 and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. 35 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior 36 of the world.
4:15 If anyone 37 confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides 38 in him and he in God. 4:16 And we have come to know and to believe 39 the love that God has in us. 40 God is love, and the one who resides 41 in love resides in God, and God resides in him. 4:17 By this 42 love is perfected with 43 us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus 44 is, so also are we in this world. 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. 45 The 46 one who fears punishment 47 has not been perfected in love. 4:19 We love 48 because he loved us first.
4:20 If anyone says 49 “I love God” and yet 50 hates his fellow Christian, 51 he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian 52 whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 53 4:21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that 54 the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian 55 too. 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ 56 has been fathered 57 by God, and everyone who loves the father 58 loves the child fathered by him. 59 5:2 By this 60 we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. 5:3 For 61 this is the love of God: 62 that we keep his commandments. 63 And his commandments do not weigh us down, 5:4 because 64 everyone 65 who has been fathered by God 66 conquers 67 the world. 68
This 69 is the conquering power 70 that has conquered 71 the world: our faith. 5:5 Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that 72 Jesus is the Son of God? 5:6 Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood – not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because 73 the Spirit is the truth. 5:7 For 74 there are three that testify, 75 5:8 the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.
5:9 If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, because 76 this 77 is the testimony of God that 78 he has testified concerning his Son. 5:10 (The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.) 79 5:11 And this is the testimony: God 80 has given us eternal life, 81 and this life is in his Son. 5:12 The one who has the Son 82 has this 83 eternal 84 life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this 85 eternal 86 life.
5:13 I have written these things 87 to you who believe 88 in the name of the Son of God so that 89 you may know that you have eternal life.
5:14 And this is the confidence that we have before him: that 90 whenever 91 we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 5:15 And if we know 92 that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him. 5:16 If 93 anyone sees his fellow Christian 94 committing a sin not resulting in death, 95 he should ask, and God 96 will grant 97 life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. 98 There is a sin resulting in death. 99 I do not say that he should ask about that. 5:17 All unrighteousness 100 is sin, but there is sin not resulting in death. 101
5:18 We know that everyone fathered 102 by God does not sin, but God 103 protects 104 the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him. 5:19 We know that we are from God, 105 and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know 106 him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one 107 is the true God and eternal life. 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols. 108