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1 Consider the amazing love that the Father has lavished on us, so great as for us to be called God’s very+ children! It’s true!+ This is why the world doesn’t know us: Because it hasn’t known him.
2 Dear friends, although,+ at the present time, we are, indeed,+ children of God, the Messiah+ has not yet made his public appearance as what we shall be.+ We know that when he+ appears, we will be like+ him,+ and that we will see him as he is.+
3 And everyone who has this hope in him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah+ is himself+ pure.
4 Everyone who refuses to turn from sin is guilty,+ like the wicked one to come,+ of open defiance against God.+ Yes,+ to sin is to defy God!+
5 You know that the Messiah+ appeared in order to do away+ with sins, and that sin is in him completely+ absent.+
6 If+ someone is from union with the Messiah+ drawing life in fellowship,+ he will keep on resisting sin.+ If+ a person refuses to turn from sin, however,+ he is still void of the Messiah+ and does not know him.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you!+ Those who live according to the Messiah’s righteous example+ are righteous,+ just as the Messiah+ is himself+ righteous.
8 Those who refuse to turn from sin, however,+ are just+ like their father the devil,+ who+ has been defying God+ from the very+ beginning. This is the purpose for which the Son of Man appeared: To destroy the works of the devil.
9 If+ someone has been conceived anew by God, he does not in sin go on conducting himself,+ because there dwells within him the very+ life and nature of God.+ Indeed, he is unable to continue in sinful defiance of God,+ since God himself is the very+ one whom he, as a newly conceived child, now has living inside of him.++
10 This is how we discern the children of God from the children of the devil:+ If+ someone’s ways and deeds are evil,+ he doesn’t belong to God—indeed anyone who doesn’t love his brother or sister.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the start: We must love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain,+ who belonged to the evil+ one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil,+ whereas those of his brother were righteous.
13 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 We, for our part,+ know that we have crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love remains in a condition+ of death.
15 If+ someone hates his brother or sister, he is nothing short+ of a murderer, and you know that no murderer has the life of the coming age+ dwelling+ within him.
16 This is how we have come to know what it truly means to love:+ The Messiah+ laid down, for our sake,+ his very life. We too, then,+ must lay down, for the sake of our brothers and sisters,+ our own lives.
17 If+ someone who+ has plenty to live on+ sees his brother in need but refuses to show him compassion,+ how in the world+ can it be+ the love of God that is dwelling in him?
18 Dear children, let us love others+ not merely+ with words and talk,+ but with action and in truth!
19 This is how we will know that is it+ the truth to which we belong, and how in the presence of God+ we can assure our consciences,+
20 in whatever matter+ they+ may condemn us, that God is so much+ more merciful than they+ dare suppose,+ and knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our consciences+ do not condemn+ us, we can approach God+ with great+ courage and confidence,
22 and will receive from him whatever we ask,+ because we are obeying his commandments+ and doing those things that are in his sight so+ pleasing and acceptable.
23 And this is what God+ commands: That we place our faith in the name of his Son, Jesus the Messiah, and show love to one another, in keeping with the commandment he gave us.++
24 Indeed, if+ someone obeys God’s+ commandments, it is+ God in union with whom he is dwelling in fellowship,+ and God+ with him. And this is how we know that he is dwelling in united fellowship with us:+ By the Spirit whom he has to us so+ generously given.