1 John 3:4–4:7
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; jsin is lawlessness. 5 You know that khe appeared in order to ltake away sins, and min him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; nno one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, olet no one deceive you. pWhoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 qWhoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was rto destroy the works of the devil. 9 sNo one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s2 seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, tnor is the one who udoes not love his brother.
11 For vthis is the message that you have heard from the beginning, wthat we should love one another. 12 We should not be like xCain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? yBecause his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers,3 zthat the world hates you. 14 We know that awe have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 bEveryone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that cno murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, that dhe laid down his life for us, and ewe ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But fif anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet gcloses his heart against him, hhow does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not ilove in word or talk but in deed and jin truth.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, kif our heart does not condemn us, lwe have confidence before God; 22 and mwhatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and ndo what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, othat we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and plove one another, qjust as he has commanded us. 24 rWhoever keeps his commandments abides in God,4 and God5 in him. And sby this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
4 Beloved, tdo not believe every spirit, but utest the spirits to see whether they are from God, for vmany wfalse prophets xhave gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: yevery spirit that confesses that zJesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit athat does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and bnow is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for che who is in you is greater than dhe who is in the world. 5 eThey are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and fthe world listens to them. 6 We are from God. gWhoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know hthe Spirit of truth and ithe spirit of error.
7 Beloved, jlet us love one another, for love is from God, and kwhoever loves has been born of God and knows God.