1 John 3

1Consider the kind of love the Father has given us: we are called children of God, and we really are his children. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, we are children of God now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he truly is. 3Everyone whose hope is set on him in this way makes themselves pure, just as he is pure.

4Everyone who goes on sinning is also practicing lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he was revealed so that he could take sins away, and he has no sin in him. 6Whoever remains in him does not go on sinning; whoever goes on sinning has neither seen him nor come to know him. 7Dear children, do not let anyone mislead you: it is the person who practices righteousness who is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8Whoever goes on sinning belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning and has never stopped. This is why the Son of God was revealed: to undo the works of the devil. 9Whoever has been born of God does not go on sinning, for God’s seed remains in them; they are not able to go on sinning, because it is from God that they have been born. 10This is how it becomes clear who are God’s children and who are the devil’s children: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not from God, and neither is anyone who does not love their brother or sister.

11For the message you heard from the beginning is this: we should love one another. 12We 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. 13Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have moved out of death into life, because we love our brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love remains in death. 15Whoever hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not remain in any murderer. 16This is how we have come to know what love is: he laid down his life for us. And we in turn owe it to our brothers and sisters to lay down our lives for them. 17Suppose someone has enough of this world’s goods and notices a brother or sister in need, yet shuts their heart against them. How can the love of God remain in such a person? 18Dear children, let us love not by what we say or with our tongues, but by what we do and in truth. 19This is how we will know that we belong to the truth, and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us: God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we can approach God boldly, 22and whatever we ask, we receive from him, since we are keeping his commands and doing what is pleasing in his sight. 23This is what God commands: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, following the command he gave us. 24Those who keep his commands remain in God, and God remains in them. We can be sure that he remains in us because of the Spirit he has given us.