Love for God and One Another

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but ^(A)test the spirits, whether they are of God; because ^(B)many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: ^(C)Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess ^[a]that Jesus ^[b]Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than ^(D)he who is in the world. ^5 (E)They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and ^(F)the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. ^(G)By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Knowing God Through Love^(H)

^7 (I)Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who ^(J)loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ^9 (K)In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten ^(L)Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, ^(M)not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son ^(N)to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, ^(O)if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love

^12 (P)No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ^13 (Q)By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And ^(R)we have seen and testify that ^(S)the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ^15 (T)Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and ^(U)he who abides in love abides in God, and God ^(V)in him.

The Consummation of Love

¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that ^(W)we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ^19 (X)We love ^[c]Him because He first loved us.

Obedience by Faith

^20 (Y)If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, ^[d]how can he love God ^(Z)whom he has not seen? ²¹ And ^(AA)this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Preeminence of Christ

^9 (A)For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask ^(B)that you may be filled with ^(C)the knowledge of His will ^(D)in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ^10 (E)that you may walk worthy of the Lord, ^(F)fully pleasing Him, ^(G)being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the ^(H)knowledge of God; ^11 (I)strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, ^(J)for all patience and longsuffering ^(K)with joy; ^12 (L)giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of ^(M)the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from ^(N)the power of darkness ^(O)and ^[a]conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ^14 (P)in whom we have redemption ^[b]through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is ^(Q)the image of the invisible God, ^(R)the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For ^(S)by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or ^(T)dominions or ^[c]principalities or ^[d]powers. All things were created ^(U)through Him and for Him. ^17 (V)And He is before all things, and in Him ^(W)all things consist. ¹⁸ And ^(X)He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, ^(Y)the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Not Carnality but Christ

3 If then you were ^(A)raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, ^(B)where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the ^(C)earth. ^3 (D)For you died, ^(E)and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

¹⁶ So let no one ^(A)judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a ^[a]festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ^17 (B)which are a shadow of things to come, but the ^[b]substance is of Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has ^[c]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to ^(C)the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, ^(D)grows with the increase that is from God.

^20 [d]Therefore, if you ^(E)died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, ^(F)why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ^21 (G)“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” ²² which all concern things which perish with the using—^(H)according to the commandments and doctrines of men? ^23 (I)These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and ^[e]neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.