1 John 4-5

Common English Bible

Testing the spirits

4 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. ² This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human^[a] is from God, ³ and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Love and God

⁷ Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. ⁸ The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. ¹³ This is how we know we remain in him and he remains in us, because he has given us a measure of his Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. ¹⁵ If any of us confess that Jesus is God’s Son, God remains in us and we remain in God. ¹⁶ We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. ¹⁷ This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars. After all, those who don’t love their brothers or sisters whom they have seen can hardly love God whom they have not seen! ²¹ This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God’s commandments. ³ This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult, ⁴ because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. ⁵ Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son?

Testimony about Jesus

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ The three are testifying— ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and the three are united in agreement. ⁹ If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. ¹⁰ The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. ¹² The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life.

Confidence in prayer

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us. ¹⁵ If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from him. ¹⁶ If anyone sees a brother or sister committing a sin that does not result in death, they should pray, and God will give life to them—that is, to those who commit sins that don’t result in death. There is a sin that results in death—I’m not saying that you should pray about that. ¹⁷ Every unrighteous action is sin, but there is a sin that does not result in death.

Be on guard

¹⁸ We know that everyone born from God does not sin, but the ones born from God guard themselves,^[b] and the evil one cannot touch them. ¹⁹ We know we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ²⁰ We know that God’s Son has come and has given us understanding to know the one who is true. We are in the one who is true by being in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. ²¹ Little children, guard yourselves from idols!