Psalm 14^(A)

For the director of music. Of David.

¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light^(A) has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.^{(B) 20} Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.^{(C) 21} But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over^(A) to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,^{(B) 30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;^{(C) 31} they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love,^(D) no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,^(E) they not only continue to do these very things but also approve^(F) of those who practice them.

Warnings Against Denying the Son

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour;^(A) and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,^(B) even now many antichrists have come.^(C) This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us,^(D) but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.^(E)

²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.^(A)

² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(A) is from God,^{(B) 3} but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(C) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(D)

² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(A) is from God,^{(B) 3} but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(C) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(D)

¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(A) and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.^(B)