1 John 3
See What Love the Father Has Given, That We Be Called Children
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Children of God
3:1See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God—and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
3:2Beloved, we are children of God now, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested. We know that when He is manifested we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.
3:3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Sin and the Children of God
3:4Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
3:5And you know that He was manifested to take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.
3:6Everyone who abides in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen Him nor come to know Him.
3:7Little children, let no one lead you astray. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
3:8The one who practices sin is from the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: to undo the works of the devil.
3:9Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
3:10By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not from God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Love One Another
3:11For this is the message you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,
3:12not as Cain, who was from the evil one and slaughtered his brother. And for what reason did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.
3:13Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.
3:14We know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brothers. The one who does not love abides in death.
3:15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
3:16By this we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
3:17But whoever has this world’s means of living and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
3:18Little children, let us not love in word or with the tongue, but in deed and truth.
By This We Shall Know That We Are of the Truth
3:19By this we shall know that we are from the truth, and we shall reassure our heart before Him,
3:20whenever our heart condemns us, because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
3:21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God,
3:22and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing before Him.
3:23And this is His commandment: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He gave us a commandment.
3:24And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in that person. And by this we know that He abides in us: by the Spirit whom He gave us.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.