Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

³ We know^(A) that we have come to know him^(B) if we keep his commands.^{(C) 4} Whoever says, “I know him,”^(D) but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.^{(E) 5} But if anyone obeys his word,^(F) love for God^[a] is truly made complete in them.^(G) This is how we know^(H) we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.^(I)

⁷ Dear friends,^(J) I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.^(K) This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command;^(L) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing^(M) and the true light^(N) is already shining.^(O)

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister^[b](P) is still in the darkness.^{(Q) 10} Anyone who loves their brother and sister^[c] lives in the light,^(R) and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.^{(S) 11} But anyone who hates a brother or sister^(T) is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.^(U) They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.^(V)