1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called childre of God! And that is what we are!
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be
has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
5
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.
And in him is no sin.
6
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
No one who continues to sin has rither seen him or known him.
7
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.
He who dos what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy
the devil's work.
9
No one who is boen of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him;
he cannot go on sinning, because he has 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 do what is right is not a child of God;
nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11
This is the message you heard from the beginning:
We should love one another.
12
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil
and his brother's were righteous.
13
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.
Anyone who does not love remains in death.
15
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16
This is how we know what love is:
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
17
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need
but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
18
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions
and in truth.
19
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth,
and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
20
whenever our hearts condemn us.
For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence before God
22
and receive from him anything we ask,
because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and to love one another as he commanded us.
24
Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.
And this is how we know that he lives in us:
We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
