1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God — and so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him.
2Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.
3And everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, just as that one is pure.
4Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
5And you know that that one was revealed in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
6Everyone who remains 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 does righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous.
8The one who commits sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil.
9Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
10By this the children of God and the children of the devil are made evident: everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, and neither is the one who does not love his brother.
11For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another —
12not like Cain, who was of the evil one and slaughtered his brother. And why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.
13Do not be amazed, brothers, if the world hates you.
14We know that we have passed over from death into 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 no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16By this we have come to know love: that that one laid down his life for us; and we ourselves ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
17But whoever has the world’s livelihood and sees his brother having need and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him?
18Little children, let us not love in word or with the tongue, but in deed and truth.
19By this we will know that we are of the truth, and we will reassure our heart before him,
20in whatever our heart may condemn us; for God is greater than our heart, and he knows all things.
21Beloved, 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 the things pleasing in his sight.
23And this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us commandment.
24And the one who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him; and by this we know that he remains in us: by the Spirit whom he gave us.
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