| So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. | A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. |
| 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. |
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| No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. | No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. |
| Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. | Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. |
| Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. | Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. |
| There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. | One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. |
| True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life. | Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life. |
| When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. | If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. |
| Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses. | Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. |
| But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’ If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared. | You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed. |
| Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. | Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. |
| And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. | And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. |
| A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ | And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ |
| When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. | This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. |
| This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. | My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. |
| Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. | Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. |
| Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. | The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. |
| But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. | But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. |
| Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. | Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. |
| In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. | In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. |
| Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble. | Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. |
| There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. | Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. |
| Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. | Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. |
| And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. | May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. |
| Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. | By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. |
