1 John 4 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Testing the Spirits

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit; instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world.

2By this you know and recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges and confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not of God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is now already in the world.

4Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have overcome them; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world.

5They are of the world and belong to it; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listen closely and pay attention to them.

6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

7Beloved, let us love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

8The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God, for God is love.

9By this the love of God was displayed in us, in that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is completed and perfected in us.

13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given to us His Spirit.

14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15Whoever confesses and acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16We have come to know, and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him.

17In this, love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

18There is no fear in love. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, so the one who is afraid is not perfected in love.

19We love, because He first loved us.

20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should also love his brother and seek the best for him.