1Jo 4 | Anderson | STEP | Beloved, believe not every spirit; but prove the spirits, whether they are from God: for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

‏ 1 John 4

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit; but prove the spirits, whether they are from God: for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is from God: 3 and whatever spirit confesses not that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is not from God: and this is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it comes, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because he that is in you, is greater 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 love is of God: and every one that loves, has been begotten of God, and knows God. 8 He that loves not, does not know God; for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward 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 expiation 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 dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen, and we do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love which God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love, dwells in God, and God in him. 17 By this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because, as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment: he that fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us.

20 If any man say, I love God, and yet hate 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? 21 And this commandment we have from him: That he that loves God, must love his brother also.