Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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.