Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God1, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God2: every spirit who confesses that ‘ISA3 AL-MASIH4 has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit who does not confess that ‘ISA AL-MASIH has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of Dajjal5, which you have heard is coming, and is in the world already.
4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. 8He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9By this the love of God was revealed to us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice6 for our sins. 11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we reside in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Saviour of the world. 15Whoever confesses that ‘ISA is the SON OF GOD7, God resides in him, and he in God. 16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.
17In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us. 20If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
- 4:1 God, English translation of theos. It is the Greek equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew) which are related to allah (Arabic) and alaha (Syriac), all of which translate as “God,” and refer to the one true God. ↩︎
- 4:2 Spirit, or Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God; not an angel, created being, nor an impersonal force, but the uncreated, eternal Spirit of God himself. The Spirit was present and active at the creation of heaven and earth (see Genesis 1:2), and today lives inside of every follower of ‘ISA AL-MASIH, empowering them to live in a way pleasing to God. ↩︎
- 4:2 ‘ISA – The names ‘ISA (Arabic), ISHO (Syriac) and JESUS (Greek, IESOUS) are all derived from the Hebrew name YEHOSHUA, which means “YAHWEH saves.” (YAHWEH is God’s personal name revealed to Prophet Musa in the Taurat, Exodus 3:15 – God said moreover to Musa, “You shall tell Bani-Israel this, ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Ibrahim, the God of Ishaq, and the God of Yaqub, has sent me to you.’ This is my Name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered to all generations.”) ↩︎
- 4:2 AL-MASIH – an Arabic title equivalent to the Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek), all of which mean the Anointed One, that is, God’s Chosen One. In ancient times, divinely-appointed kings, priests and prophets were anointed with oil to signify their appointment to office. All of them point ahead to God’s ultimate Anointed One, the Messiah, AL-MASIH. Al-Kitab unanimously points to ‘ISA Ibn Maryam as the only person worthy to bear the title AL-MASIH. He is the one whom God sent into this world to save people from sin, and to usher in God’s Kingdom at his Second Coming. ↩︎
- 4:3 Dajjal, or Antichrist. ↩︎
- 4:10 atoning sacrifice, is from the Greek hilasmos, an appeasing, propitiating, or the means of appeasement or propitiation — the sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath because of our sin. ↩︎
- 4:15 SON OF GOD, a title of the Messiah, ‘ISA AL-MASIH, revealed through Prophet Dawud in the Zabur 2:7-9, which says: I will tell of the decree. YAHWEH said to me, “You are my SON. Today I have become your FATHER. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, The ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” ↩︎