¹ My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world.

² This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God,

³ and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world.

⁴ Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

⁵ They are from the world, and therefore the world inspires what they say, and listens to them.

⁶ We are from God; whoever recognises God listens to us; anyone who is not from God refuses to listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.

⁷ My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

⁸ Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.

¹⁰ Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.

¹¹ My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.

¹² No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.

¹³ This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit.

¹⁴ We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world.

¹⁵ Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

¹⁶ We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

¹⁷ Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.

¹⁸ In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.

¹⁹ Let us love, then, because he first loved us.

²⁰ Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.

²¹ Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.