¹⁸ Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.^(A)

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(A) 16} and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

Marks of the True Christian

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good;

²² Now that you have purified your souls^[a] by your obedience to the truth^[b] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.^[c](A)

Bear One Another’s Burdens

6 My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill^[a] the law of Christ.^(A)

¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,^[a] but through love become enslaved to one another.^(A)

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant^{(A) 5} or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs;^{(B) 6} it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.^{(C) 7} It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.^(D)

Unity in the Body of Christ

4 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,^{(A) 2} with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,^{(B) 3} making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:

¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,^(A)

⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,^{(A) 42} for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’^(B)