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.