| Chapter 4 |
1 | Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
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2 | Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God;
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3 | and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that [power] of the antichrist, [of] which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.
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4 | Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that [is] in you than he that [is] in the world.
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5 | They are of the world; for this reason they speak [as] of the world, and the world hears them.
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6 | We are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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7 | Beloved, let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God.
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8 | He that loves not has not known God; for God is love.
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9 | Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
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10 | Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.
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11 | Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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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.
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13 | Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, that he has given to us of his Spirit.
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14 | And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son [as] Saviour of the world.
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15 | Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
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16 | And we have known and have believed the love which God has to us. God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
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17 | Herein has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as he is, we also are in this world.
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18 | There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has torment, and he that fears has not been made perfect in love.
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19 | We love because he has first loved us.
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20 | If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
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21 | And this commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother.
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