1 John 3
3
Called as the Children of God
1 See what sort of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so* we are.* For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, we are children of God now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The Practice of Sin vs. the Practice of Righteousness
4 Everyone who indulges in sin also indulges in lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 Everyone who abides in Him does not persist in sin; everyone who persists in sin has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one mislead you. The one who practises righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 The one who practises sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason, the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Everyone who has been born of God does not practise sin, because His seed abides in him, and he is not able to persist in sin, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: Everyone who does not practise righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
The Love of Brotherhood
11 For this is the word which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil and those of his brother were righteous. 13 Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. The one who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life abiding in him.
The Practical Outworking of Love
16 By this we know love, that He laid down His life on behalf of us, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers. 17 But whoever possesses the world’s goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in action and in truth.
The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and we shall assure our heart in His presence, 20 that if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He gave a commandment to us. 24 And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave us.
Notes
1 The adverb so is supplied to the text based on context for the sake of clarity
1 Some ancient manuscripts omit the expression and we are
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
