Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
Test the Spirits
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit who does not confess Jesus[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. 4 You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets,[b] because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. 5 They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. 9 This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We also have come to know and trust the love that God has for us.
God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 17 In this way his love has been brought to its goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like Jesus.[c] 18 There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in love.
19 We love[d] because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,[e] love God, whom he has not seen? 21 This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.
Faith, Love, and Obedience
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the God who has given birth[f] also loves one who has been born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. He did not come by the water alone but by the water and by the blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 In fact, there are three that testify:[g] 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.
9 If we accept the testimony of people, God’s testimony is even greater, because it is the testimony that God gave about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in him, but the one who does not believe has made God out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we also know that we receive the things we have asked from him.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not result in death, he will ask, and God will give life—to those who commit sin that does not result in death. There is sin that results in death; I am not saying that he should ask about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that does not result in death.
18 We know that anyone who has been born of God does not go on sinning. But the one who was born of God protects him,[h] and the Evil One cannot take hold of him. 19 We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies in the grip of the Evil One. 20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.