1 John 4

1 Dear friends, do not trust every inspiration, but test each inspiration, to see whether it proceeds from God; because many false Prophets have gone out into the world.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God — All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God;

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3 while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.

and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.

4 You, my Children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such men as these, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Ye are of God, [my] little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

5 Those men belong to the world; and therefore they speak as the world speaks, and the world listens to them.

They are of the world: therefore speak they [as] of the world, and the world heareth them.

6 We come from God. He who knows God listens to us; the man who does not come from God does not listen to us. By that we may know the true inspiration from the false.

We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because Love comes from God; and every one who loves has received the new Life from God and knows God.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.

8 He who does not love has not learned to know God; for God is Love.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9 The love of God was revealed to us by his sending his only Son into the world, that we might find Life through him.

Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 His love is seen in this — not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us thus, we, surely, ought to love one another.

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

12 No human eyes have ever seen God, yet, if we love one another, God remains in union with us, and his love attains its perfection in us.

No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:

13 We know that we remain in union with him, and he with us, by this — by his having given us some measure of his Spirit.

hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

14 Moreover, our eyes have seen — and we are testifying to the fact — that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world.

15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God — God remains in union with that man, and he with God.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.

16 And, moreover, we have learned to know, and have accepted as a fact, the love which God has for us. God is Love; and he who lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.

17 It is through this that love has attained its perfection in us, so that we may have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because what Christ is that we also are in this world.

Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love. No! Love, when perfect, drives out fear, for fear implies punishment, and the man who feels fear has not attained to perfect love.

There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.

19 We love, because God first loved us.

We love, because he first loved us.

20 If a man says ‘I love God,’ and yet hates his Brother, he is a liar; for the man who does not love his Brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen.

21 Indeed, we have this Command from God — ‘He who loves God must also love his Brother.’

And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.