THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spiritsh to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshi is from God,j 3 but every spirit that does not confess JesusA is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,k which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in youl is greater than the one who is in the world.m 5 They are from the world.n Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;o anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.p

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of Godq and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among usB in this way: God sentr his one and only Sons into the world so that we might livet through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved usu and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrificeC,v for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.w 12 No one has ever seen God.x If we love one another, God remains inD us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in himy and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.z 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Sonaa as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confessesab that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,ac because as he is, so also are we in this world.ad 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,ae because fear involves punishment.E So the one who fears is not complete in love.af 19 We loveF because he first loved us.ag 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,ah he is a liar.ai For the person who does not love his brother or sisteraj whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.G 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,ak and everyone who loves the FatherH also loves the one born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obeyI his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,al 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

THE CERTAINTY OF GOD’S TESTIMONY

5 Who is the one who conquers the worldam but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?an 6 Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by waterao and by blood.ap And the Spirit is the one who testifies,aq because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify:* ar 8 the Spirit,as the water, and the bloodat—and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept human testimony, God’s testimonya is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar,b because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life.c The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the named of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

EFFECTIVE PRAYER

14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we aske anything according to his will, he hears us.f 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,g we know that we have what we have asked of him.h

16 If anyone sees a fellow believerA committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sinB that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

CONCLUSION

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him,C,i and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has comej and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.D We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ.k He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

2 JOHN

GREETING

The elder:

To the electa lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not only I, but also all who know the truthb—2 because of the truth that remains in usc and will be with us forever.

3 Grace, mercy, and peaced will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Sone of the Father, in truth and love.f

TRUTH AND DECEPTION

4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth,g in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. 5 So now I ask you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.h 6 This is love:i that we walk according to his commands.j This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love.A

7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.k This is the deceiver and the antichrist.l 8 Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what weB have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.m 9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teachingn but goes beyond it does not have God.o The one who remainsp in that teaching, this one has both the Fatherq and the Son.r 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receives him into your home, and do not greet him; 11 for the one who greets him sharest in his evil works.u

FAREWELL

12 Though I have many things to write to you,v I don’t want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joyw may be complete.

13 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.