¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{(A) 12} My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(B) 13} Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(C) 14} You are my friends^(D) if you do what I command.^{(E) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(F) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(G) so that you might go and bear fruit^(H)—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^{(I) 17} This is my command: Love each other.^(J)

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(K) keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^(L) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^(M)

The Fellowship of the Believers

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching^(A) and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread^(B) and to prayer.^{(C) 43} Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.^{(D) 44} All the believers were together and had everything in common.^{(E) 45} They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.^{(F) 46} Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.^(G) They broke bread^(H) in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.^(I) And the Lord added to their number^(J) daily those who were being saved.

³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,^(A) so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.^(B)

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a](A) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy^(B) and can fathom all mysteries^(C) and all knowledge,^(D) and if I have a faith^(E) that can move mountains,^(F) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor^(G) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](H) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Warning Against Idolatry

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together^(A) with unbelievers.^(B) For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?^(C)

⁹ James,^(A) Cephas^[a](B) and John, those esteemed as pillars,^(C) gave me and Barnabas^(D) the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.^(E) They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles,^(F) and they to the circumcised.

¹² See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.^{(A) 13} But encourage one another daily,^(B) as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.^{(C) 14} We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold^(D) our original conviction firmly to the very end.^(E)

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,^{(A) 25} not giving up meeting together,^(B) as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another^(C)—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.^(D)