1 John 4
4
The True Spirit and the False
1My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere. 2This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. 3But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.
4But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world. 5Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world. 6But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God is Love
7Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.
11Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. 12#Jn 1.18No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit. 14And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15If anyone declares that Jesus is the Son of God, he lives in union with God and God lives in union with him. 16And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us.
God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. 17Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on Judgement Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's. 18There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.
19We love because God first loved us. 20If we say we love God, but hate our brothers and sisters, we are liars. For people cannot love God, whom they have not seen, if they do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen. 21The command that Christ has given us is this: all who love God must love their brother or sister also.
Currently Selected:
1 John 4: GNBUK
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
1 John 4
4
1Beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world;
2in this know ye the Spirit of God; every spirit that doth confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is,
3and every spirit that doth not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is not; and this is that of the antichrist, which ye heard that it doth come, and now in the world it is already.
4Ye — of God ye are, little children, and ye have overcome them; because greater is He who [is] in you, than he who is in the world.
5They — of the world they are; because of this from the world they speak, and the world doth hear them;
6we — of God we are; he who is knowing God doth hear us; he who is not of God, doth not hear us; from this we know the spirit of the truth, and the spirit of the error.
7Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and every one who is loving, of God he hath been begotten, and doth know God;
8he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.
9In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son — the only begotten — hath God sent to the world, that we may live through him;
10in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.
11Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;
12God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;
13in this we know that in Him we do remain, and He in us, because of His Spirit He hath given us.
14And we — we have seen and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son — Saviour of the world;
15whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God in him doth remain, and he in God;
16and we — we have known and believed the love, that God hath in us; God is love, and he who is remaining in the love, in God he doth remain, and God in him.
17In this made perfect hath been the love with us, that boldness we may have in the day of the judgment, because even as He is, we — we also are in this world;
18fear is not in the love, but the perfect love doth cast out the fear, because the fear hath punishment, and he who is fearing hath not been made perfect in the love;
19we — we love him, because He — He first loved us;
20if any one may say — ‘I love God,’ and his brother he may hate, a liar he is; for he who is not loving his brother whom he hath seen, God — whom he hath not seen — how is he able to love?
21and this [is] the command we have from Him, that he who is loving God, may also love his brother.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society