Love in Action

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, ¹² unlike Cain,^(A) who was of the evil one^(B) and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates^(C) you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.^{(D) 15} Everyone who hates his brother or sister^(E) is a murderer,^(F) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. ¹⁶ This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life^(G) for us.^(H) We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.^{(I) 17} If anyone has this world’s goods^(J) and sees a fellow believer^[a] in need^(K) but withholds compassion^(L) from him—how does God’s love reside in him?^{(M) 18} Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.^(N)

¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth^(O) and will reassure our hearts before him ²⁰ whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.^(P)

²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands^(Q) and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³ Now this is his command: that we believe in the name^(R) of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps his commands remains in him,^(S) and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us^(T) is from the Spirit^(U) he has given us.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits^(A) to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

² This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(B) is from God,^{(C) 3} but every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(D) which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

⁴ You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you^(E) is greater than the one who is in the world.^{(F) 5} They are from the world.^(G) Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;^(H) anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.^(I)