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.