1 John 4

 

 

 

1 Beloved, do not believe every teaching, but test each doctrine whether it comes from the Spirit of God: for there are many false prophets in the world (who claim to speak on behalf of God, speaking lies in hypocrisy and deceiving many).

 

2 This is how you can know the Spirit of God: Every teaching that confesses that Jesus is the Christ (the Word of God, the Eternal Son) come in flesh (who suffered being put to death in flesh, was risen in flesh, and is alive forevermore) is of God:

 

3 And every teaching that does not confess that Jesus Christ is (the self-same substance and nature of the Father) come in the flesh is not of God: but this doctrine is antichrist (and stands completely opposed to the doctrine of Christ), which (opposition and deception) you heard would come and even now is already in the world.

 

4 You are born of the Spirit of God, little children, and thereby overcome the death and deception in the world that is in them: because the Spirit of God that is in you is greater than the spirit in the world, having already made the same death and corruption in the world bow down in the body of (the God man) Jesus Christ.

 

5 Those who are born from the wisdom in the world (from the lies of the serpent): will speak (the poison of asps) of all the corruptible things that are in the world through lust, and the world hears them.

 

6 We are born of God, born from above, and he who knows God, hears us; he who is not of God but of the world does not hear us. By this, we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit in the world (that is filled with lies and deceit, departing from the Word that God has spoken in Christ, which was proven by Him standing up from the grave).

 

7 Beloved, let us abide in Him who is love so that we might love one another: for love is found in abiding with God and love is of God, and anyone who loves is born of God, and knows and is known by God.

 

8 He that does not love, does not abide in God, nor does he know God; for God is love.

 

9 In this was the love of God revealed to us, in that God sent His one-and-only Son into the world, so that (by pouring out His divinity to our humanity) we might live through Him (in the power of an endless life).

 

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us. And sent His Son so that He might show Himself favorable toward us by removing our suffering at the hands of death (which held us captive to fear and torment all our lifetime, satisfying His desire to love and be good to us for all the ages to come).

 

11 Beloved, if God, who is the source of love, has so loved us by serving us with His life, then (His commandment) to abide in His love enables us to love one another as we should.

 

12 No man has seen God at any time (except the Son). If we love one another, (we know that) God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us (where we know and are known by Him).

 

13 This is how we know that we are in Him and He is in us, by the Spirit that He has given us (testifying to us that the Son is in the Father and we are in the Son, and the Father and Son are in us).

 

14 And we have seen (The Son with our own eyes) and do testify that the Father has sent the Son to be Savior of the world.

 

15 Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of (the living) God (without beginning of life or end of days), God dwells in him, and he in God.

 

16 And (in Him) have we known and believed the love that God has towards us. For God is love, the very source of love, and he that abides in Him, abides in love, and God abides in him.

 

17 In this (union) is the love of God perfected in our hearts, so that we may have boldness (to stand before Him) in the day of judgment (in love and without fear), because just as He (came in flesh with His divinity to gather us unto His life) is (He now forever joined in union with our humanity) so are we (made partakers of His divine nature, through our communion with Him and His humanity, Him in us and us in Him, so also are we able to partake with the Father and the divine nature in Him, even) in this world.

 

18 There is no fear in the love of God; but abiding in His perfect love casts out (the source of) all fear from our hearts (which is death), because (the) fear (of death) has brought torment (which kept us in bondage all the days of our lives), for he who fears is not abiding in the perfect love of God (who has sent our death away in the body of the God man, Jesus Christ).

 

19 We love Him because He first showed Himself loving toward us (in Christ, the Word of eternal life, in sending away our death).

 

20 If anyone says, I love God, but hates his brother, he is not walking in the truth but in a lie. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, (is not abiding in The One who has first loved both him and his brother), (Therefore he) cannot love God, whom he has not seen (laid down His life to remove both his and his brother’s death in Jesus Christ).

 

21 And this is the commandment we have from Him, (to abide in Him, who first loved us), so that the one who loves God would love his brother also.