| And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. | This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. |
| We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. | And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. |
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| We love each other because he loved us first. | We love because He first loved us. |
| But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. | If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. |
| Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. | There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. |
| For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. | For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. |
| Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. | Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. |
| If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? | Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. |
| And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. | And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. |
| 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. | 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. |
