Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³ We can be sure that we know him when we obey his laws.

⁴ If any man says, `I know him' and does not obey his laws, he is telling a lie. He does not know what is true.

⁵ But if any man obeys his word, he really loves God. Here is the way that we may be sure that we belong to him.

⁶ If any man says he belongs to him, he must live in the same way Christ lived.

⁷ My dear brothers, I am not writing you a new law. This is an old law. You had it from the beginning. The old law is the word which you have heard.

⁸ But in a way, I am writing you a new law. The darkness is going away and the true light is shining already.

⁹ Does anyone say he is in the light, and hates his brother? Then he is still in the dark.

¹⁰ The man who loves his brother lives in the light. There is nothing in him to make him do wrong.

¹¹ But the man who hates his brother is in the dark. He lives in the dark. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind.