Young's Literal Translation YLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world;
1
My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
2 in this know ye the Spirit of God; every spirit that doth confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is,
2
Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ - the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person - comes from God and belongs to God.
3 and every spirit that doth not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is not; and this is that of the antichrist, which ye heard that it doth come, and now in the world it is already.
3
And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4 Ye -- of God ye are, little children, and ye have overcome them; because greater is He who [is] in you, than he who is in the world.
4
My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world.
5 They -- of the world they are; because of this from the world they speak, and the world doth hear them;
5
These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up.
6 we -- of God we are; he who is knowing God doth hear us; he who is not of God, doth not hear us; from this we know the spirit of the truth, and the spirit of the error.
6
But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.
7 Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and every one who is loving, of God he hath been begotten, and doth know God;
7
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.
8 he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.
8
The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love - so you can't know him if you don't love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son -- the only begotten -- hath God sent to the world, that we may live through him;
9
This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.
10 in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.
10
This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
11 Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;
11
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.
12 God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;
12
No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us - perfect love!
13 in this we know that in Him we do remain, and He in us, because of His Spirit He hath given us.
13
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit.
14 And we -- we have seen and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son -- Saviour of the world;
14
Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world.
15 whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God in him doth remain, and he in God;
15
Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God.
16 and we -- we have known and believed the love, that God hath in us; God is love, and he who is remaining in the love, in God he doth remain, and God in him.
16
We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
17 In this made perfect hath been the love with us, that boldness we may have in the day of the judgment, because even as He is, we -- we also are in this world;
17
This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day - our standing in the world is identical with Christ's.
18 fear is not in the love, but the perfect love doth cast out the fear, because the fear hath punishment, and he who is fearing hath not been made perfect in the love;
18
There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 we -- we love him, because He -- He first loved us;
19
We, though, are going to love - love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20 if any one may say -- `I love God,' and his brother he may hate, a liar he is; for he who is not loving his brother whom he hath seen, God -- whom he hath not seen -- how is he able to love?
20
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see?
21 and this [is] the command we have from Him, that he who is loving God, may also love his brother.
21
The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.