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what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! And that we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears. We will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4 Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law, for sin is actually lawlessness. 5 But you know that He was revealed so that He might take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who remains in Him sins; no one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 Everyone who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the Devil. 9 Those who have been born of God do not continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how the children of God and the children of the Devil made evident: Anyone who does not do what is right is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love abides in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we should also lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his heart from him—how can the love of God be in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with truth and with action. 19 And by this we know we are of the truth, and we are able to set our hearts at rest in His presence, 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and we received from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is his command: that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. 24 All who obey His commands abide in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us: By the Spirit He has given us.