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34 “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. 35 This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”

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34 “A new command(A) I give you: Love one another.(B) As I have loved you, so you must love one another.(C) 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(D)

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11 This is the message that you heard from the beginning: love each other. 12 Don’t behave like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he kill him? He killed him because his own works were evil, but the works of his brother were righteous.

Loving each other

13 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The person who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that murderers don’t have eternal life residing in them. 16 This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help—how can the love of God dwell in a person like that?

18 Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. 19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence. 20 Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence in relationship to God. 22 We receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. 24 Those who keep his commandments dwell in God and God dwells in them. This is how we know that he dwells in us, because of the Spirit he has given us.

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More on Love and Hatred

11 For this is the message you heard(A) from the beginning:(B) We should love one another.(C) 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one(D) and murdered his brother.(E) And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.(F) 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,[a] if the world hates you.(G) 14 We know that we have passed from death to life,(H) because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.(I) 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister(J) is a murderer,(K) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.(L)

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.(M) And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.(N) 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,(O) how can the love of God be in that person?(P) 18 Dear children,(Q) let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.(R)

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends,(S) if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God(T) 22 and receive from him anything we ask,(U) because we keep his commands(V) and do what pleases him.(W) 23 And this is his command: to believe(X) in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,(Y) and to love one another as he commanded us.(Z) 24 The one who keeps God’s commands(AA) lives in him,(AB) and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.(AC)

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Footnotes

  1. 1 John 3:13 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in verse 16.