1 John 4:4-14

4 But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

5 Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world.

6 But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

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

9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us. ¹

13 We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Cross References

• 1. 4.12John 1.18.