1Look at how great a lovea the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the •world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 2Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed.b We know that when He appears, we will be like Himc because we will see Him as He is.d 3And everyone who has this hopee in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.f

4Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law;g sin is the breaking of law. 5You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins,h, i and there is no sin in Him.j 6Everyone who remains in Himk does not sin;l, m everyone whon sins has not seen Him or known Him.

7Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8The one who commitso sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of Godp was revealedq for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works. 9Everyone who has been born of Godr does not sin,s because Hist seedu remains in him; he is not able to sin,v because he has been born of God. 10This is how God’s children — and the Devil’s children — are made evident.

The Command to Love

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.w 11For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12unlike Cain,x who was of the evil oney and murderedz his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, •brothers, if the world hatesaa you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.ab 15Everyone who hates his brotherac is a murderer,ad and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Love in Action

16This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His lifeae for us.af We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.ag 17If anyone has this world’s goodsah and sees his brother in needai but closes his eyesaj to his need — how can God’s love reside in him?ak

18Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.al 19This is how we will know we belong to the trutham and will convince our conscience in His presence, 20even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.an

21Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commandsao and do what is pleasing in His sight. 23Now this is His command: that we believe in the nameap of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. 24The one who keeps His commands remains in Him,aq and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in usar is from the Spiritas He has given us.

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Footnotes:
a. 3:1 Or at what sort of love
b. 3:2 2Co 4:11; 1Pt 5:4; 1Jn 2:28
c. 3:2 Rm 8:29; 1Co 15:49; 2Co 3:18; Php 3:21; 2Pt 1:4
d. 3:2 1Co 13:12; Heb 12:14; Rv 22:4
e. 3:3 Ac 23:6; 1Th 1:3
f. 3:3 Php 4:8
g. 3:4 Or also commits iniquity
h. 3:5 Other mss read our sins
i. 3:5 Jn 1:29; 1Co 15:3; Heb 10:4; 1Pt 2:24
j. 3:5 2Co 5:21; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1Pt 2:21-22; 3:18; 1Jn 2:29
k. 3:6 Jn 15:4-7; 1Jn 2:6,24,27-28; 3:24; 4:13,15-16
l. 3:6 Or not keep on sinning
m. 3:6 Rm 6:11-12; 1Jn 2:29; 5:18
n. 3:6 Or who keeps on sinning
o. 3:8 Or practices
p. 3:8 Mk 1:11
q. 3:8 Jn 21:1; 2Co 4:11; 1Pt 5:4; 1Jn 5:20
r. 3:9 1Jn 2:29
s. 3:9 Or not practice sin
t. 3:9 God’s
u. 3:9 1Pt 1:23
v. 3:9 Or to keep on sinning
w. 3:10 1Jn 2:10; 3:14-17; 4:20-21
x. 3:12 Gn 4:1; Jd 11
y. 3:12 2Th 3:3
z. 3:12 Or slaughtered
aa. 3:13 Jn 17:14
ab. 3:14 Jn 8:51
ac. 3:15 1Jn 2:9,11; 4:20
ad. 3:15 Mt 5:21-22; Jn 8:44
ae. 3:16 Jn 10:11,14,17-18; 13:37-38; 15:13
af. 3:16 Is 53:10; Mk 10:45
ag. 3:16 Mk 8:34-35; 1Co 11:1; Php 2:5-8
ah. 3:17 Mk 12:44; Lk 15:12; 1Jn 2:16
ai. 3:17 Ac 2:45
aj. 3:17 2Co 7:15
ak. 3:17 Jms 2:15-16; 1Jn 2:5
al. 3:18 Mt 7:21; Jn 13:34-35; 15:12-17; Jms 1:22-25; 2:14-17
am. 3:19 Jn 14:6; 2Co 11:10; 3Jn 3
an. 3:20 Ps 139:6; Pr 2:6; Jn 14:28
ao. 3:22 Mk 7:8; Jn 14:15; 1Jn 2:3; 5:2
ap. 3:23 Ps 33:21; Is 50:10; Jn 1:12; 3:18; 1Jn 5:13
aq. 3:24 Lk 11:13; Jn 15:4-7; Ac 5:32; 15:8
ar. 3:24 Jn 6:56
as. 3:24 Rm 8:9-16