¹⁸ Dear children,^(A) let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.^(B)

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends,^(C) if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God^{(D) 22} and receive from him anything we ask,^(E) because we keep his commands^(F) and do what pleases him.^{(G) 23} And this is his command: to believe^(H) in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,^(I) and to love one another as he commanded us.^{(J) 24} The one who keeps God’s commands^(K) lives in him,^(L) and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.^(M)

The Greatest Commandment^(A)

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,^(B) the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law,^(C) tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a](D) 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b](E) 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”^(F)