1 John 4:2-12

2 The test by which you may recognize the Spirit of God is that every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come as man is from God,

3 and that no spirit is from God which does not acknowledge this about Jesus. Such is the spirit of the anti-Christ; of whose coming you have heard, and it is already in the world.

4 As for you, dear children, you are God's children, and have successfully resisted them; for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

5 They are the world's children, and so their language is that of the world, and the world listens to them. We are God's children.

6 The man who is beginning to know God listens to us, but he who is not a child of God does not listen to us. By this test we can distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another; for love has its origin in God, and every one who loves has become a child of God and is beginning to know God.

8 He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.

9 God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.

10 This is love indeed--we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

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

12 No one has ever yet seen God. If we love one another, God continues in union with us, and His love in all its perfection is in our hearts.