3 See how much the Father has loved us! We are called God's children. It is true, we are God's children. People in this world did not know him and so they do not know us.

² My dear brothers, we are God's children now. No one knows yet what we shall be like. But we know that when Jesus comes, we will be like him. We will see him as he really is.

³ Everyone who has this hope about Christ makes his life holy. He makes his life holy and clean, just as Christ is holy.

⁴ Everyone who does wrong things is breaking God's law. Doing wrong things is breaking the law.

⁵ You know that Christ came to take away the wrong things people have done. He is the one who has done no wrong.

⁶ Everyone who stays with him does not do wrong things. Everyone who does wrong things has never seen him and has never known him.

⁷ My children, do not let anyone fool you. Anyone who does what is good, is good just as Christ is good.

⁸ Anyone who does what is wrong belongs to the devil. The devil has done what is wrong from the beginning. That is why God's Son came. He came to stop what the devil does.

⁹ No one who is God's child does wrong things, because God's life is in him. And he cannot keep on doing wrong things, because he is God's child.

¹⁰ This is how people can know who are God's children and who are the devil's children. Everyone who does not do right is not God's child. And anyone who does not love his brother is not God's child.

¹¹ This is the word you have heard from the beginning. `We must love one another.'

¹² We must not be like Cain. He was a child of the devil and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? He killed him because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right with God.

¹³ My brothers, do not be surprised if people in this world hate you.

¹⁴ We know that we have gone from death to life. We know this because we love the Christian brothers. Anyone who does not love them has not gone from death to life.

¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is like a man who kills a person. And you know that no one who kills a person has life that will live for ever.

¹⁶ Christ died for us. That is how we know what love is. We also should be willing to die for our brothers.

¹⁷ Perhaps a man has plenty of food and things. He sees that his brother needs some. If he does not want to help his brother, does he love God?

¹⁸ My children, we must not only talk about loving people; we must show we love people by what we do for them. We must really love them.

¹⁹ And this is how we will know that we are true. This is why we will not be afraid in front of God.

²⁰ Even if our hearts think we are wrong, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.

²¹ My dear brothers, if our hearts do not think we are wrong, we will not be afraid in front of God.

²² If we ask God for something, we get it. We get it because we obey his laws. We get it because we do what pleases him.

²³ This is his law. We must believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. And we must love one another as he told us to do.

²⁴ If anyone obeys his laws, he belongs to God and God belongs to him. God has given us the Holy Spirit. That is how we know that God is with us.