Book of Common Prayer

⁷ My dear brothers, we must love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves others is God's child and he knows God.

⁸ But anyone who does not love others does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ This is how God showed his love for us. He sent his only Son into the world to give us life.

¹⁰ This is love! We did not love God, but he loved us. And he sent his Son to be the sacrifice to pay for the wrong things we have done.

¹¹ My dear brothers, if God loved us so much, we must love one another also.

¹² No man has ever seen God. But God lives in us if we love one another. And in loving one another, his love is made perfect.

¹³ He has given us of his own Spirit. That is how we know that we are in him and he is in us.

¹⁴ And we have seen and we are telling you that the Father sent his Son to save the people in the world.

¹⁵ If anyone says, `Jesus is the Son of God,' God is in him and he is in God.

¹⁶ We know and we believe that God loves us. God is love. And anyone who loves others is in God and God is in him.

¹⁷ That is why we love each other very much. Then we will not be afraid on the day when people are judged. We are like Christ in this world.

¹⁸ Where God's love is, there is no fear. God's perfect love takes away fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear. Anyone who has fear does not have perfect love.

¹⁹ We love others because God first loved us.

²⁰ If anyone says, `I love God', and he hates his brother, he is telling a lie. If he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

²¹ God gave us this law. The person who loves God must love his brother also.

³¹ Jesus went to the town of Capernaum in Galilee. He taught the people there on the Sabbath day.

³² They were surprised at his teaching because he taught them as if he had the right to teach them.

³³ A man who had a bad spirit in him was in the meeting house. He called in a loud voice.

³⁴ He said, `Jesus from Nazareth! What do you want to do to us? Have you come to kill us? I know who you are. You are God's Holy Man.'

³⁵ Jesus said to him, `Be quiet! Come out of him!' The bad spirit threw the man down in front of them. He came out of the man and did not hurt him.

³⁶ All the people were very much surprised. They said to each other, `What kind of talk is this? He can make bad spirits obey him. He tells them to come out and they come out.'

³⁷ The people in all the places around Capernaum heard about him.