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.