1 John 4:2-12

2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

God’s Love and Ours

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Cross References

• 1. S John 1:14; 1 John 2:23
• 2. 1 Corinthians 12:3
• 3. 1 John 2:22; 2 John 7
• 4. 1 John 2:18
• 5. S 1 John 2:1
• 6. S John 16:33
• 7. Romans 8:31
• 8. 2 Kings 6:16; S John 12:31
• 9. John 15:19; John 17:14,16
• 10. John 8:47
• 11. S John 14:17
• 12. S Mark 13:5
• 13. S 1 John 3:11
• 14. S John 1:13
• 15. S 1 John 2:4
• 16. ver 7,16
• 17. John 1:18
• 18. John 3:16,17; 1 John 5:11
• 19. Romans 5:8,10
• 20. S Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2
• 21. S 1 Corinthians 10:14
• 22. S John 3:16
• 23. John 15:12; S 1 John 3:11
• 24. S John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16
• 25. ver 17; 1 John 2:5

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "spirit"