1 John 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Friends, don't believe every spirit out there. Instead, test them to see if they're really from God, because a lot of fake prophets have gone out into the world.

Here's how you can recognize God's Breath: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus the One came as a real human being — that's from God.

But every spirit that doesn't acknowledge Jesus like that? That's not from God. That's the spirit of the anti-One — the one you've heard is coming. And it's already here in the world right now.

But you, dear ones — you belong to God, and you've already overcome these fake teachers. Because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

These false teachers belong to the world. That's why they speak from the world's perspective, and the world listens to them.

We belong to God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who doesn't belong to God doesn't listen to us. That's how we can tell the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Friends, let's love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

Anyone who doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love — that's his very nature.

Here's how God's love showed up in our lives: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have real life through him.

This is what real love looks like — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the payment that makes things right for our failures.

Friends, if God loved us that much, we should love each other too.

No one has ever seen God with their own eyes. But if we love each other, God lives in us and his love reaches its full expression in us.

Here's how we know we live in him and he lives in us: he has given us a share of his Breath.

And we've seen it ourselves and can tell you: the Father sent the Son to rescue the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person and that person lives in God.

And so we've come to know and trust the love God has for us. God is love, and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them.

This is how love reaches its full expression among us: so that we can face the day of judgment with confidence. Because in this world, we are living the same kind of life he lives.

There is no fear in love. Instead, love that has reached its full expression pushes fear right out the door, because fear has to do with punishment. Anyone still living in fear hasn't yet experienced love in its fullness.

We love because he loved us first.

If someone says, "I love God," but hates a brother or sister, they're a liar. Because if you can't love someone you can see, how can you possibly love a God you can't see?

And this is the command we have from him: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.