Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is God's child. And everyone who loves the Father loves his child.

² This is how we know we love God's children. We love God and we obey his laws.

³ We show that we love God when we obey his laws. His laws are not hard to obey.

⁴ Everyone who is God's child wins a victory over the world. We win because we believe God.

⁵ Who wins a victory over the world? It is only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

¹³ I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God. I have written them so that you will know that you will live for ever.

¹⁴ And we are sure God will do this. If we ask him for anything that he wants us to have, he will listen to us.

¹⁵ And if we know he listens to us when we ask for anything, then we know that we have what we asked him for.

¹⁶ Maybe a man sees his brother do something wrong, but not so bad that he must die for it. The man should ask God and God will let his brother live. God will let people live if the things they have done are not so bad that they must die for them. But there are things so wrong that a person must die for them. If he has done such as that, I do not tell the man to ask God to let him live.

¹⁷ Everything that is wrong is a bad thing. But not every bad thing is so wrong that a person must die for it.

¹⁸ We know that any child of God does not do wrong things. The Son of God keeps him safe and the devil cannot touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we belong to God and the whole world belongs to the devil.

²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come. He has given us a heart to know him who is true. We belong to him who is true, because we belong to his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He has the life that will live for ever.

²¹ My children, have nothing to do with false gods or idols.