¹² And may the Lord make you increase and ^(A)abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you,

⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,

Knowing God Through Love^(A)

^7 (B)Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who ^(C)loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ^9 (D)In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten ^(E)Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, ^(F)not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son ^(G)to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, ^(H)if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love

^12 (I)No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ^13 (J)By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And ^(K)we have seen and testify that ^(L)the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ^15 (M)Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and ^(N)he who abides in love abides in God, and God ^(O)in him.

³⁹ And the second is like it: ^(A)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, ^(A)that we should love one another, ¹² not as ^(B)Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if ^(C)the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love ^[a]his brother abides in death. ^15 (D)Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that ^(E)no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

The Outworking of Love

^16 (F)By this we know love, ^(G)because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But ^(H)whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸ My little children, ^(I)let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And by this we ^[b]know ^(J)that we are of the truth, and shall ^[c]assure our hearts before Him.