1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it 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 doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. 9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born 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 sacrifice 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 remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13By this we know that we remain 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 Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains 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 we are 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 doesn’t 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.
This first statement seems odd in the context of what John has been saying. However, it is very significant. John states a truth that is repeated throughout Scripture. Jesus’ response to Philip, though, gives a hint of what John is thinking in this and the following verses. Jesus said that seeing Him was like seeing the Father, and so He did not need to “show” Philip the Father (John 14:7-9). John follows this statement up here with, “If we love one another.”
This “if” may or may not be true. We may or may not love one another. When we do, God is abiding in us. Our love for other believers reveals God to the world because we are expressing his loving nature. They cannot see God. No one can till they go to heaven. However, in us, they can see God just as Philip could see the Father in what Jesus said and did.
In this translation, the statement that “God remains in us” is not a reference to salvation or eternal security. We do not maintain our salvation by loving others. Also, we do not lose it if we fail. God does not stop being in a Christian who fails to love another Christian. Rather, God is not “abiding,” and therefore influencing a believer who fails to love a fellow Christian. God’s love is not made visible to the world. When the world sees God’s love expressed through us, it sees what God is like and thereby can get a glimpse of the invisible God.