Love From the Father

3 See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The world does not know us, because it did not know him. ² Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is. ³ Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus^[a] is pure.

⁴ Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. ⁶ Anyone who remains in him does not sin. The person who keeps on sinning has not seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone deceive you. Whoever does what is right is righteous just as Jesus^[b] is righteous. ⁸ The one who continues to sin is of the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared: to destroy the works of the Devil. ⁹ Nobody who has been born of God continues to commit sin, because God’s seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how the children of God and the children of the Devil are obvious: Everyone who does not do what is right is not from God, along with everyone who does not love his brother.

Love One Another

¹¹ This is the message you have heard from the beginning: Love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers,^[c] if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love^[d] remains in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ¹⁶ This is how we have come to know love: Jesus^[e] laid down his life for us. And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷ Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. ²² We also receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³ This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps his commands remains in God^[f] and God^[g] in him. This is how we know that he remains in us: We know it from the Spirit, whom he has given to us.