God’s Children

28 And now, little children, remain in him, so that whenever he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyonep who practices righteousness has been fathered by him.

3 See 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. 2 Dear 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. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as that one is pure.

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that that one was revealed in order that he might take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you: the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous. 8 The 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. 9 Everyone 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. 10 By 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

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another, 12 not 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.

13 Do not marvel,b brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed over from death to life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him.