1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2
Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God;
3
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that [power] of the antichrist, [of] which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.
4
*Ye* are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that [is] in you than he that [is] in the world.
5
*They* are of the world; for this reason they speak [as] of the world, and the world hears them.
6
*We* are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7
Beloved, let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God.
8
He that loves not has not known God; for God is love.