4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

4:3 and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.

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

4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they [as] of the world, and the world heareth them.

4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.

4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

4:9 Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.

4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

4:12 No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:

4:13 hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

4:14 And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world.

4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.

4:16 And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.

4:17 Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world.

4:18 There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.

4:19 We love, because he first loved us.

4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen.

4:21 And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.