1 John 3

1Look at how great the Father's love is! The Father loves us so much that we are called God's children — and that is what we are! The world does not understand us, because it did not know God.

2Dear friends, we are God's children now. We do not yet know exactly what we will be. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he really is.

3Everyone who has this hope keeps themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.

4Everyone who keeps on sinning breaks God's law; in fact, sin is breaking the law.

5You know that Christ came to take away our sins. And there is no sin in Christ.

6No one who lives in Christ keeps on sinning. Anyone who keeps on sinning has not really seen Christ or known him.

7Dear children, do not let anyone fool you. The person who does what is right is good, just as Christ is good.

8The person who keeps on sinning belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil's work.

9No one who is a child of God keeps on sinning, because God's life stays in the believer, who cannot keep on sinning, being born of God.

10This is how you can tell God's children from the devil's children: anyone who does not do what is right is not from God, and neither is anyone who does not love their brother or sister.

11This is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another.

12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did Cain kill him? Because Cain's own actions were evil, and his brother's actions were good.

13So do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love is still in death.

15Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in them.

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we also should give our lives for our brothers and sisters.

17Suppose someone has enough to live on, and sees a brother or sister in need, but shows no pity. How can the love of God be in that person?

18Dear children, let us not love only with words and talk. Let us love by what we do, in truth.

19This is how we know we belong to the truth, and how we can set our hearts at rest in God's presence:

20Even if our hearts make us feel guilty, God is greater than our hearts, and God knows everything.

21Dear friends, if our hearts do not make us feel guilty, then we can come to God with confidence.

22And we receive from God whatever we ask, because we obey God's commands and do what pleases God.

23And this is God's command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another, just as God commanded us.

24Those who obey God's commands live in God, and God lives in them. This is how we know that God lives in us: by the Spirit God gave us.