| See what love the Father has bestowed on us, enabling us to be called the children of God, and that is what we are. If the world does not recognize us, that is because it did not know him. | See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. |
| Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. However, we do know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope in him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure. | Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. |
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| Everyone who sins breaks the law, for sin is lawlessness. | Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. |
| Everyone who sins comes from the devil, for the devil has been a sinner from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very purpose: to destroy the work of the devil. | The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. |
| For from the beginning you have heard the message that we should love one another. | For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. |
| This is how we know what love is: he laid down his life for us, and we in turn must be prepared to lay down our lives for our brethren. | This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. |
| If anyone is rich in worldly possessions and sees a brother in need but refuses to open his heart, how can the love of God abide in him? | If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? |
| Dear children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. | Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. |
| Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we can approach God with confidence and receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do whatever is pleasing to him. | Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. |
| All those who keep his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And the proof that he abides in us is the Spirit that he has given us. | The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. |
