1 John 3-5

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

3 ¹ See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he^[a] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.^{(A) 3} And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.^{(B) 5} You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.^{(C) 6} No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children,^[b] let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil.^{(D) 9} Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them;^[c] they cannot sin because they have been born of God.^{(E) 10} The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.^(F)

Love One Another

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.^{(G) 12} We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.^{(H) 14} We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death.^{(I) 15} All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.^{(J) 16} We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.^{(K) 17} How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?^(L)

¹⁸ Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.^{(M) 19} And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him^{(N) 20} whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, ²² and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.^(O)

²³ And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.^{(P) 24} All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.^(Q)

Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.^{(R) 2} By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[d] is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.^{(S) 4} Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.^(T)

God Is Love

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.^{(U) 8} Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.^{(V) 10} In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.^{(W) 11} Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.^{(X) 12} No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.^(Y)

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.^{(Z) 16} So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.^{(AA) 18} There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹ We love^[e] because he first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.^{(AB) 21} The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Faith Conquers the World

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ^[f] has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.^{(AC) 2} By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³ For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,^{(AD) 4} for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.^{(AE) 5} Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?^(AF)

Testimony concerning the Son of God

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.^{(AG) 7} There are three that testify:^{[g](AH) 8} the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. ⁹ If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.^{(AI) 10} Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God^[h] have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.^{(AJ) 11} And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.^(AK)

Epilogue

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.^[i](AL)

¹⁴ And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. ¹⁶ If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a deadly sin, you will ask, and God^[j] will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin that is deadly; I do not say that you should pray about that.^{(AM) 17} All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.

¹⁸ We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.^{[k](AN) 19} We know that we are God’s children and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.^{(AO) 20} And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true;^[l] and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.^(AP)

²¹ Little children, keep yourselves from idols.^[m]