Children of God Love One Each Other

1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God—and that’s what we truly are! The world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know Him.

2 Beloved, we are now God’s children, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He truly is.

3 Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

What is Sin?

4 Everyone who keeps on sinning breaks the law; indeed, sin is lawlessness.

5 You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

6 No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has seen Him or known Him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose—to destroy the works of the devil.

The New Birth

9 No one who has been born of God keeps on sinning, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not practice righteousness, and does not love their brother or sister, is not of God.

Love One Another

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another.

12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

13 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.

15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. So we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

17 If someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no compassion on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

18 Little children, let us not love with words or speech only, but with actions and in truth.

Confidence Before God

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before Him:

20 Whenever our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,

22 and we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

23 And this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

24 The one who keeps His commandments lives in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He lives in us: by the Spirit whom He has given us.