1 John Chapter 3

Children of God

            ¹ Look at what special love the Father has extended to us in calling us his children. The world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know him. ² We’re God’s children now. It’s not clear what we will be, but we do know that when Christ returns, we’ll be like him and see him as he is. ³ Everybody that has that hope keeps himself pure like he is.                                             

⁴ Everybody that practices sin is practicing lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know he came to take away sins; there’s no sin in him. ⁶ Nobody that’s in him practices sin. If they do, they haven’t known him or seen him. ⁷ Little children, don’t let anybody mislead you. Whoever does good is good—like he is. ⁸ Whoever does evil is like the devil because he’s been sinning since the beginning. The Son of God came to destroy what the devil does. ⁹ None of the ones God begets practices sin because God’s seed stays in them. They can’t be sinning because God’s begotten them. ¹⁰ That’s how you can tell God’s children from the devil’s. Anybody that doesn’t practice goodness or care about fellow believers, doesn’t belong to God.                                                                                                                                     1 Jn 3:1-10           

Love One Another

¹¹ You’ve heard all along that we should love each other ¹² and not be like Cain. The evil one influenced him, and he murdered his brother. Why’d he do it? Because what his brother did was good, and what he did was bad. ¹³ Don’t be surprised if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We’ve come from death to life because we love fellow Christians. People that hate fellow Christians are still dead. ¹⁵ They amount to being murderers like Cain, and murderers don’t have eternal life. ¹⁶ We’ve known what love is because he showed us by laying his life down for us, and we should lay our lives down for our fellow Christians. ¹⁷ How can God’s love be in anyone that has this world’s possessions, sees what a brother or sister needs, and turns off sympathy for them? ¹⁸ Little children, let’s not talk about love; let’s do it.                

1 Jn 3:11-18

¹⁹ We can have confidence in his presence ²⁰ even if we feel guilty. God’s greater than our feelings and knows everything. ²¹ If our conscience doesn’t make us feel guilty, we’re confident in front of him, ²² and he gives us what we ask for because we do what pleases him. ²³ He has told us to believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love each other. ²⁴ When we do that, he lives in us and we in him. We know he’s in us by the spirit he’s given us.                                                                                                                                              

1 Jn 3:19-24