1 John 3
3
We Are God’s Children
1The Father has loved us so much! This shows how much he loved us: We are called children of God. And we really are his children. But the people in the world don’t understand that we are God’s children, because they have not known him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God. We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is. 3He is pure, and everyone who has this hope in him keeps themselves pure like Christ.
4Anyone who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sinning is the same as living against God’s law. 5You know that Christ came to take away people’s sins. There is no sin in Christ. 6So whoever lives in Christ does not continue to sin. If they continue to sin, they have never really understood Christ and have never known him.
7Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you into the wrong way. Christ always did what was right. So to be good like Christ, you must do what is right. 8The devil has been sinning since the beginning. Anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this: to destroy the devil’s work.
9Those who are God’s children do not continue to sin, because the new life God gave them#3:9 the new life God gave them Literally, “his seed.” stays in them. They cannot keep sinning, because they have become children of God. 10So we can see who God’s children are and who the devil’s children are. These are the ones who are not God’s children: those who don’t do what is right and those who do not love their brothers and sisters in God’s family.
We Must Love One Another
11This is the teaching you have heard from the beginning: We must love each other. 12Don’t be like Cain. He belonged to the Evil One. Cain killed his brother. But why did he kill him? Because what Cain did was evil, and what his brother did was good.
13Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised when the people of this world hate you. 14We know that we have left death and have come into life. We know this because we love each other as brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love is still in death. 15Anyone who hates a fellow believer is a murderer.#3:15 Anyone … murderer Those who hate someone have in their mind the same motive that causes murder. So, morally, hating is equal to murder. Jesus taught his followers about this sin. See Mt. 5:21-26. And you know that no murderer has eternal life.
16This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters. 17Suppose a believer who is rich enough to have all the necessities of life sees a fellow believer who is poor and does not have even basic needs. What if the rich believer does not help the poor one? Then it is clear that God’s love is not in that person’s heart. 18My children, our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.
19-20That’s how we know we belong to the way of truth. And when our hearts make us feel guilty, we can still have peace before God, because God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything.
21My dear friends, if we don’t feel that we are doing wrong, we can be without fear when we come to God. 22And God gives us what we ask for. We receive it because we obey God’s commands and do what pleases him. 23This is what God commands: that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love each other as he commanded. 24All who obey God’s commands live in God. And God lives in them. How do we know that God lives in us? We know because of the Spirit he gave us.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
1 John 3
3
1See ye what love the Father hath given to us, that children of God we may be called; because of this the world doth not know us, because it did not know Him;
2beloved, now, children of God are we, and it was not yet manifested what we shall be, and we have known that if he may be manifested, like him we shall be, because we shall see him as he is;
3and every one who is having this hope on him, doth purify himself, even as he is pure.
4Every one who is doing the sin, the lawlessness also he doth do, and the sin is the lawlessness,
5and ye have known that he was manifested that our sins he may take away, and sin is not in him;
6every one who is remaining in him doth not sin; every one who is sinning, hath not seen him, nor known him.
7Little children, let no one lead you astray; he who is doing the righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous,
8he who is doing the sin, of the devil he is, because from the beginning the devil doth sin; for this was the Son of God manifested, that he may break up the works of the devil;
9every one who hath been begotten of God, sin he doth not, because his seed in him doth remain, and he is not able to sin, because of God he hath been begotten.
10In this manifest are the children of God, and the children of the devil; every one who is not doing righteousness, is not of God, and he who is not loving his brother,
11because this is the message that ye did hear from the beginning, that we may love one another,
12not as Cain — of the evil one he was, and he did slay his brother, and wherefore did he slay him? because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.
13Do not wonder, my brethren, if the world doth hate you;
14we — we have known that we have passed out of the death to the life, because we love the brethren; he who is not loving the brother doth remain in the death.
15Every one who is hating his brother — a man-killer he is, and ye have known that no man-killer hath life age-during in him remaining,
16in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down;
17and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him — how doth the love of God remain in him?
18My little children, may we not love in word nor in tongue, but in word and in truth!
19and in this we know that of the truth we are, and before Him we shall assure our hearts,
20because if our heart may condemn — because greater is God than our heart, and He doth know all things.
21Beloved, if our heart may not condemn us, we have boldness toward God,
22and whatever we may ask, we receive from Him, because His commands we keep, and the things pleasing before Him we do,
23and this is His command, that we may believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and may love one another, even as He did give command to us,
24and he who is keeping His commands, in Him he doth remain, and He in him; and in this we know that He doth remain in us, from the Spirit that He gave us.
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