⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: ^(A)“Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For ^(B)many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ ^(C)and will deceive many.

^23 (A)“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For ^(B)false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, ^(C)if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you beforehand.

Deceptions of the Last Hour

^18 (A)Little children, ^(B)it is the last hour; and as you have heard that ^(C)the^[a] Antichrist is coming, ^(D)even now many antichrists have come, by which we know ^(E)that it is the last hour.

^22 (A)Who is a liar but he who denies that ^(B)Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. ^23 (C)Whoever denies the Son does not have the ^(D)Father either; ^(E)he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

Let Truth Abide in You

²⁴ Therefore let that abide in you ^(F)which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, ^(G)you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. ^25 (H)And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

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.