1
How great is the love the Father has given us so freely! Now we can be called children of God. And that's what we really are! The world doesn't know us because it didn't know him.
2
Dear friends, now we are children of God. He still hasn't let us know what we will be. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like him. We will see him as he really is.
3
He is pure. All who hope to be like him make themselves pure.
4
Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, breaking the law is sin.
5
But you know that Christ came to take our sins away. And there is no sin in him.
6
No one who remains joined to him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has seen him or known him.
7
Dear children, don't let anyone lead you down the wrong path. Those who do what is right are holy, just as Christ is holy.
8
Those who do what is sinful belong to the devil. They are just like him. He has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil's work.
9
Those who are born again because of what God has done will not keep on sinning. God's very nature remains in them. They can't go on sinning. They have been born again because of what God has done.
10
Here is how you can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who don't do what is right do not belong to God. Those who don't love their brothers and sisters do not belong to him either.
Love One Another
11 From the beginning we have heard that we should love one another.