1 John 3

¹See what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God — and we are! The world does not know us for this reason: that it did not know him.

²Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him just as he is.

³And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as that one is pure.

⁴Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

⁵And you know that that one was made manifest to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

⁶Everyone who abides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him nor known him.

⁷Little children, let no one lead you astray; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

⁸The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: so that he might destroy the works of the devil.

⁹Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot go on sinning, because he has been begotten of God.

¹⁰By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, and also the one who does not love his brother.

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

¹²not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slaughtered his brother. And for what reason did he slaughter him? Because his deeds were evil, but those of his brother were righteous.

¹³And do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. The one who does not love the brother abides in death.

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

¹⁶By this we have come to know love: that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

¹⁷But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and truth.

¹⁹And by this we will know that we are of the truth, and before him we will convince our heart,

²⁰that if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God,

²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing before him.

²³And this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment.

²⁴And the one who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.