1 John 4:1-11

Evangelical Heritage Version

Test the Spirits

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit who does not confess Jesus^[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets,^[b] because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. ⁵ They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.