▶ Listen · sung by Psalm Selah

First John 4 is the New Testament’s most concentrated teaching on the nature of divine love, anchored by the three-word declaration “God is love” in verse 8. The Apostle John, writing circa AD 85-95, opens by calling believers to test spirits against the confession of Christ’s incarnation, then moves into a sustained m

Full sung version coming soon.

Lyrics

Beloved do not believe every spirit But test the spirits whether they are of God Because many false prophets have gone out into the world

By this you know the Spirit of God Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh Is of God and every spirit who does not 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 you are of God Little children and have overcome them

Because greater is he who is in you Than he who is in the world they are of the world Therefore they speak of the world And the world hears them we 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 beloved let us love one another

For love is of God and everyone who loves Has been born of God and knows God He who does not love does not know God For God is love by 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 in this is love Not that we loved God but that he loved us And sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins

Beloved if God loved us in this way We also ought to love one another No one has seen God at any time If we love one another God remains in us

And his love has been perfected in us We know that we remain in him and he in us If a man says I love God and hates his brother He is a liar for he who does not love his brother

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1 John 4 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.

Published 2026-05-22 · Last updated 2026-06-06
Written by Reid Wender, Editorial Director at Psalmody Press