Love for God and One Another

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but ^(A)test the spirits, whether they are of God; because ^(B)many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Deceptions of the Last Hour

^18 (A)Little children, ^(B)it is the last hour; and as you have heard that ^(C)the^[a] Antichrist is coming, ^(D)even now many antichrists have come, by which we know ^(E)that it is the last hour. ^19 (F)They went out from us, but they were not of us; for ^(G)if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out ^(H)that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

Beware of Antichrist Deceivers

⁷ For ^(A)many deceivers have gone out into the world ^(B)who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. ^(C)This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

The Great Apostasy

4 Now the Spirit ^[a]expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed ^(A)to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ^2 (B)speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience ^(C)seared with a hot iron,

^3 (A)For the time will come when they will not endure ^(B)sound doctrine, ^(C)but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and ^(D)be turned aside to fables.