3See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God, and we are! Because of this the world does not know us: because it did not know him. ²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever he is revealed we will be like him, because we will 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, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵And you know that that one was revealed in order that he might take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you: the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous. ⁸The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. ¹⁰By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother.

God is Love, so Love One Another

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 violently murdered his brother. And for what reason^a did he violently murder him? Because his deeds were evil and the deeds of his brother were righteous.

¹³Do not marvel,^b brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed over from death to life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him. ¹⁶We have come to know love by this: that he^c laid down his life on behalf of us, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers. ¹⁷But whoever has the world’s material possessions and observes his brother in need^d and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God reside in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. ¹⁹By this^e we know that we are of the truth and will convince our heart before him, ²⁰that^f if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart and knows all things. ²¹Dear friends, 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 what is pleasing in his sight^g. ²³And this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us^h. ²⁴And the one who keeps his commandments resides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he resides in us: by the Spirit whom he has given to us.

How to Recognize the Spirit of God

4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ^a has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

⁴You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world; therefore^b they speak from the world and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

God’s Love Revealed

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. ⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through him. ¹⁰In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation^c for our sins.

¹¹Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us and his love is perfected in us. ¹³By this we know that we reside in him and he in us: that^d he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and have believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him. ¹⁷By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as that one is, so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear includes punishment, and the one who is afraid has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love, because he first loved us.

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen is not able to love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this is the commandment we have from him: that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father^a also loves the child fathered by him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and keep his commandments. ³For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, ⁴because everyone who is fathered by God conquers the world.

God Has Given Us Eternal Life in the Son

And this is the victory which has conquered the world: our faith. ⁵Now who is the one who conquers the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? ⁶This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify,^b ⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement^c.

⁹If we receive the testimony of people, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son. ¹⁰(The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.) ¹¹And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Our Assurance of Eternal Life

¹³These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him. ¹⁶If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not leading to death. (There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should ask about that. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.)

¹⁸We know that everyone who is fathered by God does not sin, but the one fathered by God, he protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. ¹⁹We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, in order that we may know the one who is true, and we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life. ²¹Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

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Footnotes

aLiterally “on account of what”
bSome manuscripts have “And do not marvel”
cLiterally “that one” (referring to Jesus Christ)
dLiterally “having need”
eSome manuscripts have “And by this”
fOr “because”
gLiterally “in the sight of him”
hLiterally “he gave us commandment”
aOr “confesses Jesus as Christ who has come in the flesh” (see also 2 John 7)
bLiterally “because of this”
cOr “expiation”; or “atoning sacrifice”
dOr “because”
aLiterally “the one who fathers”
bLater Latin manuscripts add the following words to v. 7 and v. 8: “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth”
cLiterally “for the one”