See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! On account of this, the world does not know us because it did not know him.
Beloved, we are children of God now, and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We know that when it is revealed, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
And everyone who has this hope, which is based upon him, purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Everyone who continues to commit sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
And you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and there is no sin in him.
No one who remains in him keeps on sinning. Everyone who continues sinning has not seen him or known him.
O little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever continues in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Whoever continues to commit sin is of the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the Devil.
No one born of God continues to commit sin because his seed remains in him, and he is not able to continue to sin because he has been born of God.
This is how the children of God and the children of the Devil are revealed: everyone who does not continue to do what is right is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother or sister.
Love One Another
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,
not as Cain, who was of the Wicked One and slaughtered his brother. And why did he slaughter him? Because his works were wicked, and his brother’s were righteous.
Do not be amazed, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love remains in death.
Everyone who keeps on hating his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has life in the age to come remaining in him.
This is how we have come to know love: that he laid down his life for us, and we are obligated to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother or sister in need but closes off his heart from him, how can the love of God remain in him?
O children, we must not love only with words, or with the tongue, but also in truth and action.
And this is how we will know that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him:
that if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God,
and whatever we are asking for we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us.
And the one who keeps his commandments remains in union with him, and he in him. And this is how we know that he remains in us, by the spirit that he gave to us.