1 John 3-5

Common English Bible

3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us.

² Dear friends, now we are God’s children, and it hasn’t yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we’ll see him as he is. ³ And all who have this hope in him purify themselves even as he is pure. ⁴ Every person who practices sin commits an act of rebellion, and sin is rebellion. ⁵ You know that he appeared to take away sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Every person who remains in relationship to him does not sin. Any person who sins has not seen him or known him.

Practicing sin or righteousness

⁷ Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, in the same way that Jesus is righteous. ⁸ The person who practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. God’s Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Those born from God don’t practice sin because God’s DNA^[a] remains in them. They can’t sin because they are born from God. ¹⁰ This is how God’s children and the devil’s children are apparent: everyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not from God, including the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister. 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.

Testing the spirits

4 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. ² This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human^[b] is from God, ³ and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Love and God

⁷ Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. ⁸ The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. ¹³ This is how we know we remain in him and he remains in us, because he has given us a measure of his Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. ¹⁵ If any of us confess that Jesus is God’s Son, God remains in us and we remain in God. ¹⁶ We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. ¹⁷ This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars. After all, those who don’t love their brothers or sisters whom they have seen can hardly love God whom they have not seen! ²¹ This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God’s commandments. ³ This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult, ⁴ because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. ⁵ Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son?

Testimony about Jesus

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ The three are testifying— ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and the three are united in agreement. ⁹ If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. ¹⁰ The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. ¹² The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life.

Confidence in prayer

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us. ¹⁵ If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from him. ¹⁶ If anyone sees a brother or sister committing a sin that does not result in death, they should pray, and God will give life to them—that is, to those who commit sins that don’t result in death. There is a sin that results in death—I’m not saying that you should pray about that. ¹⁷ Every unrighteous action is sin, but there is a sin that does not result in death.

Be on guard

¹⁸ We know that everyone born from God does not sin, but the ones born from God guard themselves,^[c] and the evil one cannot touch them. ¹⁹ We know we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ²⁰ We know that God’s Son has come and has given us understanding to know the one who is true. We are in the one who is true by being in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. ²¹ Little children, guard yourselves from idols!