¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits as to whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²This is how the spirit of God is known: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³whereas every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. And such is the spirit of antichrist which you have heard is coming and is already in the world now. ⁴You, little children, stem from God, and you have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵They are of the world. That is why they speak from the standpoint of the world, and the world heeds them. ⁶We are of God. He who knows God heeds us. He who is not of God does not heed us. That is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. ⁷Beloved, we love each other, because the love is from God, and everyone who shows love has been begotten by God and knows God. ⁸He who does not show love has not come to know God, for God is love. ⁹This is how the love of God was made manifest among us: in that God has sent his only-begotten son into the world in order that we should live through him. ¹⁰This is how love is evident: not in that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God loved us like this, we in turn have a debt to love each other. ¹²No-one has seen God at any time. If we love each other, God remains in us, and his love has been brought to completion in us. ¹³This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: in that he has given us a share of his spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as the saviour of the world. ¹⁵As for whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has among us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷This is how love has been perfected with us: that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, that as he is, so we are in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts fear out, because fear involves punishment, and he who has fear has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love him because he loved us first. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God”, but he hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, love God, whom he has not seen? ²¹And we have this commandment from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.