Beloved, do not put faith in every spirit,
but prove (test) the spirits to discover whether they proceed from God;
for many false prophets have gone forth into the world.
By this you may know (perceive and recognize) the Spirit of God:
every spirit which acknowledges and confesses [the fact]
that Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [actually] has become man
and has come in the flesh is of God [has God for its source];
And every spirit which does not acknowledge
and confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
[but would annul, destroy, sever, disunite Him]
is not of God [does not proceed from Him].
This [nonconfession] is the [spirit] of the antichrist,
[of] which you heard that it was coming, and now it is already in the world.
Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him]
and have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the antichrist],
because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.
They proceed from the world and are of the world;
therefore it is out of the world [its whole economy morally considered] that they speak,
and the world listens (pays attention) to them.
We are [children] of God.
Whoever is learning to know God
[progressively to perceive, recognize, and understand God
by observation and experience, and to get an ever-clearer knowledge of Him]
listens to us; and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us.
By this we know (recognize) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.
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