¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, ¹² unlike Cain,^(A) who was of the evil one^(B) and murdered^[a] his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates^(C) you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.^{(D) 15} Everyone who hates his brother^(E) is a murderer,^(F) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Love in Action

¹⁶ This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life^(G) for us.^(H) We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.^{(I) 17} If anyone has this world’s goods^(J) and sees his brother in need^(K) but closes his eyes^(L) to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?^(M)

¹⁸ Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.^{(N) 19} This is how we will know we belong to the truth^(O) and will convince our conscience in His presence, ²⁰ even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.^(P)

²¹ Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands^(Q) and do what is pleasing in His sight. ²³ Now this is His command: that we believe in the name^(R) of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps His commands remains in Him,^(S) and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us^(T) is from the Spirit^(U) He has given us.

Knowing God through Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God^(A) and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way:^[a] God sent^(B) His One and Only Son^(C) into the world so that we might live^(D) through Him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us^(E) and sent His Son to be the^[b] propitiation^(F) for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.^{(G) 12} No one has ever seen God.^[c](H) If we love one another, God remains in^[d] us and His love is perfected in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we remain in Him^(I) and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.^{(J) 14} And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son^(K) as the world’s Savior. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses^[e](L) that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

¹⁷ In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,^(M) for we are as He is in this world.^{(N) 18} There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,^(O) because fear involves punishment.^[f] So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.^{(P) 19} We love^[g] because He first loved us.^(Q)

Keeping God’s Commands

²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother,^(R) he is a liar.^(S) For the person who does not love his brother^(T) he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.^{[h] 21} And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God,^(A) and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. ² This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey^[a] His commands. ³ For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,^{(B) 4} because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God^[a] will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin^[b] that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.

Conclusion

¹⁸ We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One^[c] who is born of God keeps him,^[d][e](A) and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come^(B) and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.^[f] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ.^(C) He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹ Little children, guard yourselves from idols.