See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. | 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. |
Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. | 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. |
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Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. | Everyone who sins breaks the law, for sin is lawlessness. |
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. | 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. |
For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. | For from the beginning you have heard the message that we should love one another. |
By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. | 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. |
But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? | 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? |
My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. | Dear children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. |
Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. | 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. |
He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. | 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. |