³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

² Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us^[a] and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

¹⁸ “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.^[a] Love each other deeply with all your heart.^[b]

² Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

²⁶ If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

²⁷ All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

²³ And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

²¹ And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.^[a]

Faith in the Son of God

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ^[b] has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.

Loving One Another

⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.