³ do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul.

² Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

¹⁹ But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!

⁵ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

¹¹ So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies.

²⁰ Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.

¹⁴ And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life.

⁴ But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

Discerning False Prophets

4 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.