1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (耶29:8; 林前12:10; 林前14:29; 帖前5:21; 彼后2:1; 约一2:18; 约二1:7; 启2:2)2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, (林前12:3; 约二1:7)3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (帖后2:3; 约一2:18; 约一2:22; 约二1:7)4Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (约12:31; 羅8:31; 林前2:12)5They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. (约3:31; 约8:23; 约15:19)6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (约8:47; 约10:16; 约14:17; 约15:26; 约16:13; 约18:37; 林前2:12; 林前14:37; 提前4:1)
God Is Love
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (约一2:29; 约一3:11)8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (约4:24; 林后13:11; 约一1:5; 约一3:10; 约一4:16)9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (约3:16)10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (羅5:8; 羅5:10; 约一2:2; 约一4:9)11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (约1:18; 提前6:16; 约一2:5; 约一4:20)13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (约一3:24)14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (约3:17; 约一1:1; 约一2:2)15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (太14:33; 羅10:9; 约一5:5)16So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (约6:69; 约一3:24; 约一4:8; 约一4:12)17By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (约一2:5; 约一2:28; 约一3:1; 约一3:21)18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (约3:18; 羅8:15; 约一4:17)19We love because he first loved us. (约一4:10)20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[1] love God whom he has not seen. (彼前1:8; 约一2:4; 约一2:9; 约一2:11; 约一3:17; 约一4:12)21And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (加6:2; 约一3:11; 约一4:7)