1 John 3

¹See what an otherworldly kind of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God—and we are! This is why the world-system does not recognize us: because it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been fully revealed. We know that when it is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is. ³And everyone who has this hope set on him purifies themselves, just as that one is pure.

⁴Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who remains in him persists in sin; no one who persists in sin has seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you: the one who practices justice is just, exactly as that one is just. ⁸The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to undo the works of the devil. ⁹No one born of God practices sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they are not able to persist in sin because they have been born of God. ¹⁰This is how the children of God and the children of the devil are made evident: anyone who does not practice justice is not from God, nor is the one who does not love their brother or sister.

¹¹For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. ¹²We must not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and slaughtered his brother. And why did he slaughter him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s were just. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world-system hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed over from death into life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in them.

¹⁶We have come to know love by this: that he laid down his life for us. We, too, are deeply obligated to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷If someone has the world’s means of subsistence and sees a brother or sister in need, yet closes off their inner heart from them, how does the love of God remain in that person? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or with the tongue, but in work and in truth.

¹⁹By this we will know that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him ²⁰whenever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have fearless confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³And this is his commandment: that we should place our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. ²⁴The one who keeps his commandments remains in God, and God in them. And by this we know that he remains in us: by the Spirit whom he gave to us.