The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2
This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
3
But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
4
You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5
They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.
6
We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
Knowing God through Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8
The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9
God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.