MODERN LITERAL VERSION

4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
4:2 You* know by this the Spirit of God. Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh, is not from God and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you* have heard of, that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
4:4 You* are from God, my little children and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you* than he who is in the world.
4:5 They are from the world. Therefore they speak as from the world and the world hears them.
4:6 We are from God. He who knows God, hears us; he who is not from God does not hear us. We know from this, {F} the spirit of the truth and the spirit of the deceit.

4:7 Beloved, we should love* one another, because love* is from God, and everyone who loves* has been born from God and knows God.
4:8 He who does not love*, does not know God, because God is love*.
4:9 In this, the love* of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that* we might live through him.
4:10 In this is love*, not that we loved* God, but that he loved* us and sent his Son to be the atonement on behalf of our sins.
4:11 Beloved, if God so loved* us, we also ought to love* one another.
4:12 No one has seen God at anytime; if we love* one another, God is abiding in us and his love* is perfected in us.
4:13 We know by this that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given to us from his Spirit.
4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.
4:16 And we know and have believed the love* which God has in us. God is love*, and he who abides in love* abides in God and God abides in him.
4:17 In this, love* has been perfected with us, that* we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because just-as he is perfect, we are also perfect in this world.
4:18 There is no fear in love*, but perfect love* casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love*.
4:19 We should love* him, because he loved* us first.
4:20 If anyone says, I love* God and then might hate his brother, he is a liar; for* he who does not love* his brother, whom he has seen, how is he able to love* God, whom he has not seen?
4:21 And we have this commandment from him, that* he who loves* God should also love* his brother.
{Footnotes: 1Jn 4:6- Or: the Spirit of the Truth and the Spirit of the Deceit. A contrast, God vs. the Evil One.}