1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2. This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3. and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world.
4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5. They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
6. We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8. Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9. In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10. In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another.