¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.^(A)

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep^[a] my commandments.^(A)

³ For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,^(A)

²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, ²² and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.^(A)

²³ And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.^{(B) 24} All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.^(C)

⁵ but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we know that we are in him:^(A)

Christ Our Advocate

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,^{(A) 2} and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.^(B)

²⁹ And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.”^(A)

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.^(A)

²¹ For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^(A)

A Life Pleasing to God

4 Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more.^(A)