Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Difference of spirits, and how the Spirit of God may be known from the spirit of error. Of the love of God and of our neighbours.

4 Ye beloveds, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God or not. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you may know the spirit that is of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God. ³ And every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is the spirit of Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he would come. And even now already he is in the world.

⁴ Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them. For greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world, and therefore what they say is of the world, and 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. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloveds, let us love one another. For love comes of God. And every one who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love, does not know God. For God is love.

⁹ In this did the love of God for us appear, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. ¹⁰ Herein is love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹ Beloveds, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. ¹² No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us – because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son, who is the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, in him dwells God, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has to us.

God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ In this is the love made perfect in us, so that we may have trust in the day of judgment. For as he is, even so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has painfulness. He who fears is not perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love him because he first loved us. ²⁰ If a person says, I love God, and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: that he who loves God, should love his brother also.

To love God is to keep his commandments. Faith overcomes the world. Everlasting life is in the Son of God. Of the sin unto death.

5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begat, loves also the child who was born of him. ² In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments. ³ This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. ⁴ For all that is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶ This Jesus Christ is he who came by water and blood – not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷ (For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.) ⁸ And there are three which bear witness (in earth): the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one. ⁹ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he testified of his Son. ¹⁰ He who believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself.  He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God gave of his Son. ¹¹ And this is that testimony: that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life.

¹³ These things I have written to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, and so that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. ¹⁴ And this is the trust that we have in him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we will have the petitions that we ask of him.

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, let him ask, and he will give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death, for which I do not say that a person should pray. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not unto death.

¹⁸ We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one does not touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and that the world is altogether set on wickedness. ²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us a mind to know him who is true. And we are in him who is true through his Son Jesus Christ. This same is very God and eternal life.

²¹ Babes, keep yourselves
from idols.
Amen.