Warnings Against Denying the Son

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour;^(A) and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,^(B) even now many antichrists have come.^(C) This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us,^(D) but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.^(E)

²⁰ But you have an anointing^(F) from the Holy One,^(G) and all of you know the truth.^{[a](H) 21} I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it^(I) and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.^{(J) 23} No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.^(K)

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning^(L) remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.^{(M) 25} And this is what he promised us—eternal life.^(N)

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.^(O)

On Denying the Incarnation

4 Dear friends,^(A) do not believe every spirit,^(B) but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.^{(C) 2} This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(D) is from God,^{(E) 3} but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(F) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(G)

⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.^(A)

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood^(B)—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.^{(C) 7} For there are three^(D) that testify: ⁸ the^[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. ⁹ We accept human testimony,^(E) but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God,^(F) which he has given about his Son. ¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony.^(G) Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar,^(H) because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,^(I) and this life is in his Son.^{(J) 12} Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.^(K)