3. Another spirit refuses to say this about Jesus. That spirit is not from God. This is the spirit of the enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now he is already in the world.
4. My dear children, you belong to God, so you have already defeated these false prophets. That’s because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5. And they belong to the world, so what they say is from the world too. And the world listens to what they say.
6. But we are from God. So the people who know God listen to us. But the people who are not from God don’t listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit that is true and the spirit that is false.
7. Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God.
8. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him.
10. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.
11. That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other.
12. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God’s love has reached its goal—it is made perfect in us.