| 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 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, 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. | 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 also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. | Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, 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. | 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 this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. | For this is the message you heard from the beginning: 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: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. |
| 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 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? |
| My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, 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 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. | 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. |
| 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. | 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. |
