1 ¶ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 I n this know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ, is come in flesh is of God:

3 A nd every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ, is come in flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which ye have heard that it should come, and that now it is already in the world.

4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

5 T hey are of the world; therefore, they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

6 W e are of God; he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 ¶ Beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. Anyone that loves is born of God and knows God.

8 H e that does not love does not know God, for God is charity.

9 I n this was the charity of God demonstrated in us, in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 I n this does the charity consist, not because we had loved God, but because he loved us and has sent his Son to be the reconciliation for our sins.

11 B eloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 N o one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his charity is completed in us.

13 I n this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, in that he has given us of his Spirit.

14 ¶ And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

15 W hosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16 A nd we have known and believed the charity that God has in us. God is charity, and he that abides in charity abides in God, and God in him.

17 ¶ In this the charity with us is made perfect, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, that as he is, so are we in this world.

18 I n charity there is no fear; but charity that is perfect casts out fear; because fear has torment; from which he that fears is not complete in charity.

19 W e love him, because he first loved us.

20 I f anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

21 A nd we have this commandment from him, That he who loves God loves his brother also.