Know God so we can test and discern the spirits as He commands
1 Beloved, do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because
many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the
Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God, 3 and
every spirit that does not confess that[a]
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit
of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the
world.
4 You are of God,
little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater
than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and
the world hears them. 6
We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us.
By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. 8 He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of
God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through Him.
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.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been
perfected in us. 13 By
this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His
Spirit. 14 And we have
seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses
that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known
and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in
love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been
perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment;
because as He is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who
fears has not been made perfect in love.
19 We love Him[b]
because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, “I
love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, how can[c]
he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And this
commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother
also.
1 “Let not your
heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house
are many mansions;[a]
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you.[b]
3 And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where
I am, there you may be also.
4 And where I go you
know, and the way you know.”
5 Thomas said to Him,
“Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
Me.
7 “If you had known Me,
you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen
Him.”
8 Philip said to Him,
“Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9 Jesus said to him,
“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has
seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Do you not believe
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I
do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does
the works. 11 Believe
Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for
the sake of the works themselves.
12 “Most assuredly, I
say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and
greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 And whatever you
ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask[c]
anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me,
keep[d]
My commandments. 16
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may
abide with you forever— 17
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him
nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave
you orphans; I will come to you.
19 “A little while
longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live,
you will live also. 20
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in
you. 21 He who has My
commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be
loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not
Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us,
and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered and
said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love
him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
24 He who does not
love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the
Father’s who sent Me.
25 “These things I
have spoken to you while being present with you.
26 But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
27 Peace I leave with
you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not
your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 You have heard Me
say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me,
you would rejoice because I said,[e]
‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
29 “And now I have
told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
30 I will no longer
talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in
Me. 31 But that the
world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so
I do. Arise, let us go from here.