Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, ¹  but test ²  the spirits ³  to determine ⁴  if they are from God, because many false prophets ⁵  have gone out into the world.

By this ¹  you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses ²  Jesus as the Christ ³  who has come in the flesh is from God,

the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.

By this ¹  we know that we reside in God ²  and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. ³ 

We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but ¹  whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this ²  we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. ³ 

Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood – not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because ¹  the Spirit is the truth.

And the person who keeps his commandments resides ¹  in God, ²  and God ³  in him. Now by this ⁴  we know that God ⁵  resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.

but ¹  every spirit that does not confess ²  Jesus ³  is not from God, and this is the spirit ⁴  of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.