Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Jesus Came as a Human Being

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² Here is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit agreeing that Jesus Christ came in a human body belongs to God. ³ But every spirit that doesn’t agree with this does not belong to God. You have heard that the spirit of the great enemy of Christ is coming. Even now it is already in the world.

⁴ Dear children, you belong to God. You have not accepted the teachings of the false prophets. That’s because the one who is in you is powerful. He is more powerful than the one who is in the world. ⁵ False prophets belong to the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view. And the world listens to them. ⁶ We belong to God. And those who know God listen to us. But those who don’t belong to God don’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of lies.

We Love Because God Loved Us

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become a child of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ Here is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world. He sent him so we could receive life through him. ¹⁰ Here is what love is. It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we should also love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us.

¹³ Here’s how we know that we are joined to him and he to us. He has given us his Holy Spirit. ¹⁴ The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We have seen it and are witnesses to it. ¹⁵ God lives in anyone who agrees that Jesus is the Son of God. This kind of person remains joined to God. ¹⁶ So we know that God loves us. We depend on it.

God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love is joined to God. And God is joined to them. ¹⁷ Suppose love is fulfilled among us. Then we can be without fear on the day God judges the world. Love is fulfilled among us when in this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives away fear. That’s because fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love.

¹⁹ We love because he loved us first. ²⁰ Suppose someone claims to love God but hates a brother or sister. Then they are a liar. They don’t love their brother or sister, whom they have seen. So they can’t love God, whom they haven’t seen. ²¹ Here is the command God has given us. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Faith in God’s Son Who Became a Human Being

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children as well. ² Here is how we know that we love God’s children. We know it when we love God and obey his commands. ³ In fact, here is what it means to love God. We love him by obeying his commands. And his commands are not hard to obey. ⁴ That’s because everyone who is a child of God has won the battle over the world. Our faith has won the battle for us. ⁵ Who is it that has won the battle over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶ Jesus Christ was born as we are, and he died on the cross. He wasn’t just born as we are. He also died on the cross. The Holy Spirit is a truthful witness about him. That’s because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ There are three that are witnesses about Jesus. ⁸ They are the Holy Spirit, the birth of Jesus, and the death of Jesus. And the three of them agree. ⁹ We accept what people say when they are witnesses. But it’s more important when God is a witness. That’s because it is what God says about his Son. ¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts what God says about him. Whoever does not believe God is calling him a liar. That’s because they have not believed what God said about his Son. ¹¹ Here is what God says about the Son. God has given us eternal life. And this life is found in his Son. ¹² Whoever belongs to the Son has life. Whoever doesn’t belong to the Son of God doesn’t have life.

Final Words

¹³ I’m writing these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. I’m writing so you will know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ Here is what we can be sure of when we come to God in prayer. If we ask anything in keeping with what he wants, he hears us. ¹⁵ If we know that God hears what we ask for, we know that we have it.

¹⁶ Suppose you see any brother or sister commit a sin. But this sin is not the kind that leads to death. Then you should pray, and God will give them life. I’m talking about someone whose sin does not lead to death. But there is a sin that does lead to death. I’m not saying you should pray about that sin. ¹⁷ Every wrong thing we do is sin. But there are sins that do not lead to death.

¹⁸ We know that those who are children of God do not keep on sinning. The Son of God keeps them safe. The evil one can’t harm them. ¹⁹ We know that we are children of God. We know that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. ²⁰ We also know that the Son of God has come. He has given us understanding. So we can know the God who is true. And we belong to the true God by belonging to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹ Dear children, keep away from statues of gods.