1
The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children. The reason the people in the world do not know us is that they have not known him.
2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and 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, because we will see him as he really is.
3
Christ is pure, and all who have this hope in Christ keep themselves pure like Christ.
4
The person who sins breaks God's law. Yes, sin is living against God's law.
5
You know that Christ came to take away sins and that there is no sin in Christ.
6
So anyone who lives in Christ does not go on sinning. Anyone who goes on sinning has never really understood Christ and has never known him.
7
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you the wrong way. Christ is all that is right. So to be like Christ a person must do what is right.
8
The devil has been sinning since the beginning, so anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this purpose: to destroy the devil's work.
9
Those who are God's children do not continue sinning, because the new life from God remains in them. They are not able to go on sinning, because they have become children of God.
10
So we can see who God's children are and who the devil's children are: Those who do not do what is right are not God's children, and those who do not love their brothers and sisters are not God's children.
11
This is the teaching you have heard from the beginning: We must love each other.