¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(A) 13} Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(B) 14} You are my friends^(C) if you do what I command.^{(D) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(E) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(F) so that you might go and bear fruit^(G)—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^{(H) 17} This is my command: Love each other.^(I)

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)