04:01 .. beloved .. do not believe every spirit .. but test the spirits to see whether they are from God .. .......... because many false prophets have gone out into the world 04:02 .. by this you know the Spirit of God .. every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God 04:03 .. and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God .. this is the spirit of the antichrist .. .......... of which you have heard that it is coming .. and now it is already in the world 04:04 .. you are from God .. little children .. and have overcome them .. because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world 04:05 .. they are from the world .. therefore they speak as from the world .. and the world listens to them 04:06 .. we are from God .. he who knows God listens to us .. he who is not from God does not listen to us .. .......... by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error
.................. God is love
04:07 .. beloved .. let us love one another .. for love is from God .. and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God 04:08 .. the one who does not love does not know God .. for God is love 04:09 .. by this the love of God was manifested in us .. that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him 04:10 .. In this is love .. not that we loved God .. but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins 04:11 .. beloved .. if God so loved us .. we also ought to love one another 04:12 .. no one has seen God at any time .. if we love one another .. God abides in us .. and his love is perfected in us
04:13 .. by this we know that we abide in him and he in us .. because he has given us of his Spirit 04:14 .. we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son to be the savior of the world 04:15 .. whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God .. God abides in him .. and he in God 04:16 .. we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us .. God is love .. .......... and the one who abides in love abides in God .. and God abides in him 04:17 .. by this .. love is perfected with us .. so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment .. .......... because as he is .. so also are we in this world 04:18 .. there is no fear in love .. but perfect love casts out fear .. because fear involves punishment .. .......... and the one who fears is not perfected in love 04:19 .. we love .. because he first loved us 04:20 .. If someone says . . . I love God .. and hates his brother .. he is a liar .. .......... for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen .. cannot love God whom he has not seen 04:21 .. and this commandment we have from him .. that the one who loves God should love his brother also
God’s people must be ever cautious concerning false teachers that may arise to deny the incarnation .. deity and atonement of the Lord Jesus .. and must accept none of their claims without testing them by God’s Truth in the light of the Holy Spirit’s teaching .. the spirit of truth is known not only by doctrine but by love which is the natural fruit of the Spirit .. the manifestation of divine love through the life argues a true and just apprehension of the divine nature .. and such love can never deny the Lord Jesus . . . . seven tests of true doctrine are given here .. does it confess Christ’s true humanity - 1 John 4:9-15 . . . his vicarious atonement - 1 John 4:10-14 . . . does it tend to worldliness - 1 John 4:4-5 . . . do spiritually minded people agree with it - 1 John 4:6 . . . does it witness to the spirit of divine love - 1 John 4:7-8 . . . does it accord with the teaching of the Holy Spirit - 1 John 4:13