The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

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.

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) 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.

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) They are from the world.(G) Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 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)

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Footnotes

  1. 4:3 Other mss read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh

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