1 John 3–4

3¹Look at how great a love ^tthe 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. ^uWe know that when He appears, we will be like Him ^vbecause we will see Him as He is. ^w3And everyone who has this hope ^xin Him purifies himself just as He is pure. ^y

⁴Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; ^zsin is the breaking of law. ⁵You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, ^aband there is no sin in Him. ^c6Everyone who remains in Him ^ddoes not sin; ^efeveryone who ^gsins 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 ^hsin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God ⁱwas revealed ^jfor this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works. ⁹Everyone who has been born of God ^kdoes not sin, ^lbecause His ^mseed ⁿremains in him; he is not able to sin, ^obecause 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. ^p11For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, ¹²unlike Cain, ^qwho was of the evil one ^rand murdered ^shis 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 hates ^tyou. ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. ^u15Everyone who hates his brother ^vis a murderer, ^wand 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 life ^xfor us. ^yWe should also lay down our lives for our brothers. ^z17If anyone has this world’s goods ^aand sees his brother in need ^bbut closes his eyes ^cto his need—how can God’s love reside in him? ^d

¹⁸Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action. ^e19This is how we will know we belong to the truth ^fand 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. ^g

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 commands ^hand do what is pleasing in His sight. ²³Now this is His command: that we believe in the name ⁱof His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. ²⁴The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, ^jand He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us ^kis from the Spirit ^lHe has given us.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits ^mto determine 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 who confesses that Jesus Christ has ⁿcome in the flesh ^ois from God. ^p3But every spirit who does not confess Jesus ^qis not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; ^ryou have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

⁴You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you ^sis greater than the one who is in the world. ^t5They are from the world. ^uTherefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; ^vanyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. ^w

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 ^xand knows God. ⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: ^yGod sent ^zHis One and Only Son ^ainto the world so that we might live ^bthrough Him. ¹⁰Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us ^cand sent His Son to be the ^dpropitiation ^efor our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. ^f12No one has ever seen God. ^ghIf we love one another, God remains in ⁱus and His love is perfected in us.

¹³This is how we know that we remain in Him ^jand He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. ^k14And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son ^las the world’s Savior. ¹⁵Whoever confesses ^mnthat 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 perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, ^ofor we are as He is in this world. ^p18There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, ^qbecause fear involves punishment. ^rSo the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. ^s19We love ^tbecause He first loved us. ^u

Keeping God’s Commands

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, ^vhe is a liar. ^wFor the person who does not love his brother ^xhe has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. ^y21And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.