¹¹For 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.

Read in Logos

1 John 3:16: By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Footnotes

s3:12 Or slaughtered

Cross references

q3:12 Gn 4:1; Jd 11
r3:12 2Th 3:3
t3:13 Jn 17:14
u3:14 Jn 8:51
v3:15 1Jn 2:9, 11; 4:20
w3:15 Mt 5:21–22; Jn 8:44
x3:16 Jn 10:11, 14, 17–18; 13:37–38; 15:13
y3:16 Is 53:10; Mk 10:45
z3:16 Mk 8:34–35; 1Co 11:1; Php 2:5–8
a3:17 Mk 12:44; Lk 15:12; 1Jn 2:16
b3:17 Ac 2:45
c3:17 2Co 7:15
d3:17 Jms 2:15–16; 1Jn 2:5
e3:18 Mt 7:21; Jn 13:34–35; 15:12–17; Jms 1:22–25; 2:14–17
f3:19 Jn 14:6; 2Co 11:10; 3Jn 3
g3:20 Ps 139:6; Pr 2:6; Jn 14:28
h3:22 Mk 7:8; Jn 14:15; 1Jn 2:3; 5:2
i3:23 Ps 33:21; Is 50:10; Jn 1:12; 3:18; 1Jn 5:13
j3:24 Lk 11:13; Jn 15:4–7; Ac 5:32; 15:8
k3:24 Jn 6:56
l3:24 Rm 8:9–16