4:1 So, loved ones, do not believe every spirit, but test it to make sure it is from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

4:2 Here is the test: if the spirit affirms that Jesus the Anointed came in the flesh, it is from God;

4:3 if it denies this, it is not of God but of the Impostor Anointed that you have heard is coming, and in fact is already in the world.

4:4 Little ones, you are of God and you have conquered them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world.

4:5 They speak like the world because they are part of it, so it listens to them.

4:6 But we are of God, so those who know God listen to us, but those who are not of God don’t. This is how you can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of deception.

4:7 Loved ones, love each other, for love comes from God. Those who love are the ones who know God and are his children.

4:8 But those who do not love never knew God, because God is love.

4:9 The love of God appeared among us when he sent his only-born Son into the world, so that we could live by means of him.

4:10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as the full payment for our failures.

4:11 Dear ones, if God loves us in this way, we should also love each other.

4:12 No one has ever put God under investigation, but if we keep loving each other, God remains in us and his love is perfected in us.

4:13 And we can know we are remaining in him and he in us, because he has given to us from his Spirit.

4:14 We have examined and are testifying that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

4:15 Whoever publicly testifies that Jesus is the God-Man is one in whom God remains, and them in God.

4:16 We have known and believed the love God has in us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God in them.

4:17 This is how love is perfected in us, so that we can be bold in the day of judgment, if we are like him in this world.

4:18 There is no fear in love; mature love throws it out, because fear has to do with punishment. So the one who has no fear has matured in love.

4:19 We love because he loved us first.

4:20 If anyone says “I love God” but hates others, they are lying, because whoever does not love those they can see, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

4:21 And we have this command from God, that whoever loves him must also love other people.