Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out
into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This
is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now
is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have
overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in
the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the
world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever
knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to
us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and
whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does
not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love
of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into
the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one
another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has
given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the
Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he
in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God
has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God,
and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that
we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so
also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and
whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he
first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he
has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment
we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.