| See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. | Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. |
| Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. | Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. |
| Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. | Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. |
| But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. | He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. |
| This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. | For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. |
| We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. | By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. |
| If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? | But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? |
| Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. | My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. |
| Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. | Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. |
| Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. | Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. |
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