¹⁶ For God loved^(A) the world in this way:^[a] He gave^[b] his one and only^(B) Son,^(C) so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.^(D)

Christlike Love

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.^{(A) 10} If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.^(B)

¹¹ “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.^(C)

¹² “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved^(D) you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life^(E) for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master^[a](F) is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you.^(G) I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask^(H) the Father in my name,^(I) he will give you.^(J)

¹⁷ “This is what I command you: Love one another.

The Justified Are Reconciled

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time,^(A) Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God proves^(B) his own love for us^(C) in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood,^(D) will we be saved through him from wrath.^{(E) 10} For if, while we were enemies,^(F) we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.^{(G) 11} And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.^(H)

Knowing God through Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God^(A) and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us^[a] in this way: God sent^(B) his one and only Son^(C) into the world so that we might live^(D) through him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(E) and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice^[b](F) for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.^{(G) 12} No one has ever seen God.^(H) If we love one another, God remains in^[c] us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³ This is how we know that we remain in him^(I) and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{(J) 14} And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son^(K) as the world’s Savior. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses^(L) that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷ In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,^(M) because as he is, so also are we in this world.^{(N) 18} There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,^(O) because fear involves punishment.^[d] So the one who fears is not complete in love.^{(P) 19} We love^[e] because he first loved us.^{(Q) 20} If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,^(R) he is a liar.^(S) For the person who does not love his brother or sister^(T) whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.^{[f] 21} And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.