1 John 3

3 ¹See what kind of love our Father has given us, that we should be called children of our Father! And we are. The world doesn't know us because it didn't know him. ^a a v1 Our Father's love is not abstract — it makes us his children, our truest identity. ²Beloved, we are our Father's children now; what we will become has not yet been shown. But we know that when he appears, we will be like him, since we will see him as he is. ³And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who keeps committing sin also commits lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know he appeared to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. ⁶Whoever remains in him doesn't go on sinning; whoever goes on sinning hasn't seen or known him.

⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸Whoever keeps on sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of our Father appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹No one born of our Father keeps on sinning, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of our Father. ¹⁰This shows who our Father's children are, and who the devil's children are: whoever doesn't do what's right isn't from our Father, nor is anyone who doesn't love their brother or sister.

Love One Another as Family

¹¹For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. ¹²Not like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know we've passed from death to life, because we love each other. Whoever doesn't love remains in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.

¹⁶This is how we know love: Christ laid down his life for us; we too should lay down our lives for one another. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother or sister in need, yet closes his heart to them, how does our Father's love remain in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love with words or talk, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹By this we'll know we come from the truth, and settle our heart before him, ²⁰whenever our heart condemns us; for our Father is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before our Father; ²²whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³This is his command: believe in his Son Jesus Christ's name, and love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴Whoever keeps his commands remains in our Father, and our Father in them. This is how we know he remains in us: by the Holy Spirit he gave us.