1 'Born of him!' Think what a love the Father has for us, in letting us be called 'children of God!' That is what we are. The world does not recognize us? That is simply because it did not recognize him.
2 We are children of God now, beloved; what we are to be is not apparent yet, but we do know that when he appears, we are to be like him ??for we are to see him as he is.
3 And everyone who rests this hope on him, purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness: sin is lawlessness,
5 and you know he appeared to take [our] sins away. In him there is no sin;
6 anyone who remains in him does not sin ??anyone who sins has neither seen nor known him.
7 Let no one deceive you, my dear children: he who practises righteousness is just, as He is just;
8 he who commits sin belongs to the devil, for the devil is a sinner from the very beginning. (This is why the Son of God appeared, to destroy the deeds of the devil.)
9 Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin, for the offspring of God remain in Him, and they cannot sin, because they are born of God.
10 Here is how the children of God and the children of the devil are recognized; anyone who does not practise righteousness does not belong to God, and neither does he who has no love for his brother.
11 For this is the message you have learned from the very beginning, that we are to love one another:
12 we are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the evil One and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's just.
13 Do not wonder, brothers, that the world hates you.
14 We know we have crossed from death to life, because we love the brotherhood; he who has no love [for his brother] remains in death.
15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining within him.
16 We know what love is by this, that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for the brotherhood.
17 But whoever possesses this world's goods, and notices his brother in need, and shuts his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?
18 My dear children, let us put our love not into words or into talk but into deeds, and make it real.
19 Thus it is that we may be sure we belong to the truth and reassure ourselves
20 whenever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and he knows all.
21 If our heart does not condemn us, beloved, then we have confidence in approaching God,
22 and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.
23 Now this is what he commands, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commanded us to do;
24 he who obeys his commands remains within him ??and He remains within him. And this is how we may be sure he remains within us, by means of the Spirit he has given us.