1 John 3 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Look at how incredible the Father's love for us is — that we'd actually be called God's children. And that's exactly what we are! The reason the world doesn't recognize us is that it never recognized him either.

Friends, right now we are God's children, and what we'll ultimately become hasn't been fully revealed yet. But we do know this: when he appears, we'll be like him, because we'll see him exactly as he is.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who keeps failing God is also breaking his design — because failure at its core is rebellion against God's design.

And you know that he appeared to take away our failures, and there is no failure in him at all.

No one who remains connected to him keeps on failing. No one who keeps on failing has actually seen him or known him.

Little ones, don't let anyone mislead you. The person who does what's right is right with God, just as he is right.

The person who keeps on failing belongs to the devil, because the devil has been failing from the very beginning. This is exactly why the Son of God appeared — to destroy everything the devil has done.

No one who has been born from God keeps on failing, because God's own nature remains in them. They can't keep on failing because they've been born from God.

This is how you can tell God's children apart from the devil's children: anyone who doesn't do what's right isn't from God, and neither is anyone who doesn't love their brother or sister.

Because this is the message you've heard from the very beginning: that we should love each other.

Don't be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were corrupt, and his brother's were right.

So don't be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

We know we've crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is still stuck in death.

Anyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has limitless life living inside them.

This is how we know what love actually is: he laid down his life for us. So we should lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters too.

If someone has the resources to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shuts off their compassion toward them — how can God's love possibly be living inside that person?

Little ones, let's not love with just words or talk — let's love with actions and in reality.

This is how we'll know we belong to the truth, and it's how we'll put our hearts at ease in his presence —

even when our own hearts condemn us. Because God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Friends, if our hearts don't condemn us, we have confidence before God,

and we receive whatever we ask from him, because we keep his instructions and do what makes him happy.

And this is what he's instructed: that we put our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus the One, and that we love each other — just like he told us to.

The person who keeps his instructions remains connected to God, and God remains connected to them. And this is how we know he lives in us — through the Breath he's given us.