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How great is the love1 the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!2 And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.32
Dear friends,4 now we are children of God,5 and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,a6 we shall be like him,7 for we shall see him as he is.83
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself,9 just as he is pure.104
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.115
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.12 And in him is no sin.136
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.14 No one who continues to sin has either seen him15 or known him.167
Dear children,17 do not let anyone lead you astray.18 He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.198
He who does what is sinful is of the devil,20 because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God21 appeared was to destroy the devil's work.229
No one who is born of God23 will continue to sin,24 because God's seed25 remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
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This is how we know who the children of God26 are and who the children of the devil27 are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love28 his brother.29
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This is the message you heard30 from the beginning:31 We should love one another.3212
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one33 and murdered his brother.34 And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.3513
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.3614
We know that we have passed from death to life,37 because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.3815
Anyone who hates his brother39 is a murderer,40 and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.4116
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.42 And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.4317
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,44 how can the love of God be in him?4518
Dear children,46 let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.4719
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
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whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
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Dear friends,48 if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God4922
and receive from him anything we ask,50 because we obey his commands51 and do what pleases him.5223
And this is his command: to believe53 in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,54 and to love one another as he commanded us.5524
Those who obey his commands56 live in him,57 and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.58
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