1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 In this know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ, is come in flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ, is come in flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which ye have heard that it should come, and that now it is already in the world.
4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
5 They are of the world; therefore, they speak of the world, and the world hears them.
6 We 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.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. Anyone that loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He that does not love does not know God, for God is charity.
9 In this was the charity of God demonstrated in us, in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 In this does the charity consist, not because we had loved God, but because he loved us and has sent his Son to be the reconciliation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his charity is completed in us.
13 In this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, in that he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the charity that God has in us. God is charity, and he that abides in charity abides in God, and God in him.
17 In this the charity with us is made perfect, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, that as he is, so are we in this world.
18 In charity there is no fear; but charity that is perfect casts out fear; because fear has torment; from which he that fears is not complete in charity.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And we have this commandment from him, That he who loves God loves his brother also.