⁴ You, dear children,^(A) are from God and have overcome them,^(B) because the one who is in you^(C) is greater than the one who is in the world.^{(D) 5} They are from the world^(E) and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.^(F) This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth^(G) and the spirit of falsehood.^(H)

God’s Love and Ours

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another,^(I) for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God^(J) and knows God.^{(K) 8} Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.^{(L) 9} This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^(M) into the world that we might live through him.^{(N) 10} This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(O) and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.^(P)

The Fall

3 Now the serpent^(A) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?^(B)”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,^{(C) 3} but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”^(D)

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.^{(E) 5} “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,^(F) knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable^(G) for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,^(H) who was with her, and he ate it.^{(I) 7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;^(J) so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.^(K)