The Imperative of Love^(A)

¹⁰ In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

¹¹ Beloved, ^(A)do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. ^(B)He who does good is of God, ^[a]but he who does evil has not seen ^(C)God.

³⁵ But ^(A)love your enemies, ^(B)do good, and ^(C)lend, ^[a]hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and ^(D)you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

²¹ And ^(A)this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

^44 (A)You are of your father the devil, and the ^(B)desires of your father you want to ^(C)do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and ^(D)does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

^38 (A)The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are ^(B)the sons of the wicked one.

⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. ^(A)By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

^9 (A)He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. ^10 (B)He who loves his brother abides in the light, and ^(C)there is no cause for stumbling in him.

³ and every spirit that does not confess ^[a]that Jesus ^[b]Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.