1 John 3–5

3See what great love^A 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.^t We know that when he appears,^B we will be like him^u because we will see him as he is.^{v 3}And everyone who has this hope^w in him purifies himself just as he is pure.^x

⁴Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins,^Cy and there is no sin in him.^{z 6}Everyone who remains in him^aa does not sin;^Dab everyone who sins^E 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 commits^F sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God^ac was revealed^ad for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. ⁹Everyone who has been born of God^ae does not sin,^G because his seed^af remains in him; he is not able to sin,^H because he has been born of God. ¹⁰This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.^ag

LOVE IN ACTION

¹¹For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, ¹²unlike Cain,^ah who was of the evil one^ai and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

¹³Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates^aj you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.^{ak 15}Everyone who hates his brother or sister^al is a murderer,^am and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. ¹⁶This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life^an for us.^ao We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.^{ap 17}If anyone has this world’s goods^aq and sees a fellow believer^I in need^ar but withholds compassion^as from him—how does God’s love reside in him?^{at 18}Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.^au

¹⁹This is how we will know that we belong to the truth^a and will reassure our hearts before him ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.^b

²¹Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God ²²and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands^c and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³Now this is his command: that we believe in the name^d of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴The one who keeps his commands remains in him,^e and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us^f is from the Spirit^g he has given us.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits^h to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshⁱ is from God,^{j 3}but every spirit that does not confess Jesus^A is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^k which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

⁴You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you^l is greater than the one who is in the world.^{m 5}They are from the world.ⁿ Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;^o anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.^p

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God^q and knows God. ⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us^B in this way: God sent^r his one and only Son^s into the world so that we might live^t through him. ¹⁰Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^u and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice^Cv for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.^{w 12}No one has ever seen God.^x If we love one another, God remains in^D us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³This is how we know that we remain in him^y and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{z 14}And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son^aa as the world’s Savior. ¹⁵Whoever confesses^ab that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,^ac because as he is, so also are we in this world.^{ad 18}There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,^ae because fear involves punishment.^E So the one who fears is not complete in love.^{af 19}We love^F because he first loved us.^{ag 20}If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,^ah he is a liar.^ai For the person who does not love his brother or sister^aj whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.^{G 21}And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,^ak and everyone who loves the Father^A also loves the one born of him. ²This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey^B his commands. ³For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,^{al 4}because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

THE CERTAINTY OF GOD’S TESTIMONY

⁵Who is the one who conquers the world^am but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?^{an 6}Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water^ao and by blood.^ap And the Spirit is the one who testifies,^aq because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify:^{ar 8}the Spirit,^as the water, and the blood^at—and these three are in agreement. ⁹If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony^a is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. ¹⁰The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar,^b because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²The one who has the Son has life.^c The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³I have written these things to you who believe in the name^d of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

EFFECTIVE PRAYER

¹⁴This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask^e anything according to his will, he hears us.^{f 15}And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,^g we know that we have what we have asked of him.^h

¹⁶If anyone sees a fellow believer^D committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin^E that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

CONCLUSION

¹⁸We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him,^Fi and the evil one does not touch him. ¹⁹We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. ²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come^j and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.^G We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ.^k He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Little children, guard yourselves from idols.