CHAPTER II.
FALSE SPIRITS, BROTHERLY LOVE, THE LOVE OF GOD, THE THREE WITNESSES, ETC.
1 4:1BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 4:2By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 4:3and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.
2 4:4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 4:5They are of the world; therefore they speak of the world and the world hears them. 4:6We are of God; he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
3 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loves has been born of God and knows God. 4:8He that loves not has not known God; for God is love. 4:9The love of God was manifested to us in this; that God has sent his only Son into the world that we may live through him. 4:10In this is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.
4 4:11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 4:12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God continues in us and his love is perfected in us. 4:13By this we know that we continue in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. 4:14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son, the Saviour of the world. 4:15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God continues in him and he in God. 4:16And we have known and believed the love which God has for us. God is love; and he that continues in love continues in God and God in him.
5 4:17By this is love perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as he is we also are in this world. 4:18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has pain; and he that is afraid is not made perfect in love. 4:19We love, because he first loved us. 4:20If any one says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 4:21And we have this commandment from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
6 5:1Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and every one who loves the Father loves also the Son who is born to him. 5:2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous; 5:4for every child that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our faith. 5:5Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
7 5:6This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus, the Christ; not by water only, but by water and by blood; and the Spirit is that which testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. 5:7For there are three that testify; the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are one. 5:9If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son. 5:10He that believes on the Son of God has the testimony in himself; he that believes not God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning his Son. 5:11And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 5:12He that has the Son has the life; he that has not the Son has not the life.
8 5:13These things have I written to you, that you who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that you have eternal life. 5:14And this is the confidence which we have in respect to him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he hears us. 5:15And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. 5:16If any one sees his brother commit a sin, not to death, he shall ask, and he will give him life, for those who sin not to death. There is a sin to death; I say not that you should pray for it. 5:17All wickedness is sin, and there is sin not to death.
9 5:18We know that every one who has been born of God does not sin, but he that has been born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. 5:19We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. 5:20And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding that we may know the true One; and we are in the true One, in his Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God, and eternal life. 5:21Little children, keep yourselves from idols.