1 John 4:1-9

1 Dear friends, don't believe all people who say that they have the Spirit. Instead, test them. See whether the spirit they have is from God, because there are many false prophets in the world.

2 This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every person who declares that Jesus Christ has come as a human has the Spirit that is from God.

3 But every person who doesn't declare that Jesus Christ has come as a human has a spirit that isn't from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that you have heard is coming. That spirit is already in the world.

4 Dear children, you belong to God. So you have won the victory over these people, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

5 These people belong to the world. That's why they speak the thoughts of the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever doesn't belong to God doesn't listen to us. That's how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies.

7 Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

8 The person who doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love.

9 God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him.