²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands^(A) and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³ Now this is his command: that we believe in the name^(B) of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps his commands remains in him,^(C) and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us^(D) is from the Spirit^(E) he has given us.

¹³ This is how we know that we remain in him^(A) and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{(B) 14} And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son^(C) as the world’s Savior. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses^(D) 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.