3How great is the love the Father has given us so freely! Now we can be called children of God. And that’s what we really are! The world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know him.

²Dear friends, now we are children of God. He still hasn’t let us know what we will be. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like him. We will see him as he really is. ³He is pure. All who hope to be like him make themselves pure.

⁴Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, breaking the law is sin. ⁵But you know that Christ came to take our sins away. And there is no sin in him. ⁶No one who remains joined to him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has seen him or known him.

⁷Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you down the wrong path. Those who do what is right are holy, just as Christ is holy. ⁸Those who do what is sinful belong to the devil. They are just like him. He has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil’s work.

⁹Those who are born again because of what God has done will not keep on sinning. God’s very nature remains in them. They can’t go on sinning. They have been born again because of what God has done.

¹⁰Here is how you can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who don’t do what is right do not belong to God. Those who don’t love their brothers and sisters do not belong to him either.

Love One Another

¹¹From the beginning we have heard that we should love one another. ¹²Don’t be like Cain. He belonged to the evil one. He murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because the things Cain had done were wrong. But the things his brother had done were right.

¹³My brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have left our old dead condition and entered into new life. We know it because we love one another. Those who do not are still living in their old condition.

¹⁵Those who hate their brothers and sisters are murderers. And you know that murderers do not have eternal life in their hearts.

¹⁶We know what love is because Jesus Christ gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brothers and sisters.

¹⁷Suppose someone sees a brother or sister in need and is able to help them. If he doesn’t take pity on them, how can the love of God be in him?

¹⁸Dear children, don’t just talk about love. Put your love into action. Then it will truly be love. ¹⁹That’s how we know that we hold to the truth. And that’s how we put our hearts at rest, knowing that God is watching. ²⁰Our hearts may judge us. But God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything.

²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not judge us, we can be bold with God. ²²And he will give us anything we ask. That’s because we obey his commands. We do what pleases him.

²³God has commanded us to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. He has also commanded us to love one another. ²⁴Those who obey his commands remain joined to him. And he remains joined to them.

How do we know that God lives in us? We know it because of the Holy Spirit he gave us.

Put the Spirits to the Test

4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Put the spirits to the test to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²How can you recognize the Spirit of God? Every spirit that agrees that Jesus Christ came in a human body belongs to God. ³But every spirit that doesn’t agree with this does not belong to God. It is the spirit of the great enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy is coming. Even now he is already in the world.

⁴Dear children, you belong to God. You have not accepted the teachings of the false prophets. That’s because the One who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world.

⁵False prophets belong to the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view. The world listens to them. ⁶We belong to God. And those who know God listen to us. But those who don’t belong to God don’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of lies.

We Love Because God Loved Us

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born again because of what God has done. That person knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹How did God show his love for us? He sent his one and only Son into the world. He sent him so we could receive life through him.

¹⁰What is love? It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins.

¹¹Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we should also love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us.

¹³We know that we belong to him and he belongs to us. He has given us his Holy Spirit.

¹⁴The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We have seen it. We give witness to it. ¹⁵God lives in anyone who agrees that Jesus is the Son of God. That kind of person remains joined to God. ¹⁶So we know that God loves us. We depend on it.

God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows that he is joined to God. And God is joined to him.

¹⁷So love is made complete among us. We will be bold on the day God judges us. That’s because in this world we love as Jesus did.

¹⁸There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives fear away. Fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love.

¹⁹We love because he loved us first. ²⁰Anyone who says he loves God but in fact hates his brother or sister is a liar. He doesn’t love his brother or sister, whom he has seen. So he can’t love God, whom he has not seen.

²¹Here is the command God has given us. Anyone who loves God must also love his brothers and sisters.

Faith in the Son of God

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born again because of what God has done. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children as well.

²How do we know that we love God’s children? We know it when we love God and obey his commands. ³Here is what it means to love God. It means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not hard to obey. ⁴That’s because everyone who is a child of God has won the battle over the world. Our faith has won the battle for us.

⁵Who is it that has won the battle over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶Jesus Christ is the one who was baptized in water and died on the cross. He wasn’t just baptized in water. He also died on the cross. The Holy Spirit has given a truthful witness about him. That’s because the Spirit is the truth.

⁷There are three that give witness about Jesus. ⁸They are the Holy Spirit, the baptism of Jesus and his death. And the three of them agree.

⁹We accept the witness of people. But the witness of God is more important because it is God who gives it. He has given witness about his Son.

¹⁰Those who believe in the Son of God have accepted that witness in their hearts. Those who do not believe God’s witness are calling him a liar. That’s because they have not believed his witness about his Son.

¹¹Here is God’s witness. He has given us eternal life. That life is found in his Son. ¹²Those who belong to the Son have life. Those who do not belong to the Son of God do not have life.

Final Words

¹³I’m writing these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. I’m doing it so you will know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴There is one thing we can be sure of when we come to God in prayer. If we ask anything in keeping with what he wants, he hears us. ¹⁵If we know that God hears what we ask for, we know that we have it.

¹⁶Suppose you see your brother or sister commit a sin. But that sin is not the kind that leads to death. Then you should pray for them. And God will give life to them. I’m talking about someone whose sin does not lead to death. But there is a sin that does lead to death. I’m not saying that you should pray about that. ¹⁷Every wrong thing we do is sin. But there are sins that do not lead to death.

¹⁸We know that those who are children of God do not keep on sinning. The Son of God keeps them safe. The evil one can’t harm them. ¹⁹We know that we are children of God. We know that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

²⁰We also know that the Son of God has come. He has given us understanding. Now we can know the One who is true. And we belong to the One who is true. We also belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is eternal life.

²¹Dear children, keep away from statues of gods.

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