New Testament · Letters

1 John chapter 3

Look at how incredible the Father’s for us is — that we’d actually be called God’s . And that’s exactly what we are! The reason the doesn’t recognize us is that it never recognized him either., 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 , we’ll be like him, because we’ll see him exactly as he is.And everyone who has this fixed on him , just as he is clean.Everyone who keeps is also — because failure at its core is rebellion against God’s design.And you know that he to our failures, and there is no failure in him at all.No one who 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 is right with God, just as he is right.The person who keeps on failing belongs to the , because the devil has been failing from the very beginning. This is exactly why the appeared — to everything the devil has done.No one who has been keeps on failing, because God’s own 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 their brother or sister.Because this is the you’ve heard from the very beginning: that we should love each other.Don’t be like , who belonged to the 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 hates you.We know we’ve from to , 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 , and you know that no murderer has living inside them.This is how we know what actually is: he his life for us. So we should lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters too.If someone has the and sees a brother or sister in need but shuts off their 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 .This is how we’ll know we belong to the , and it’s how we’ll put our at ease in his presence —even when our own hearts us. Because God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.Friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have before God,and we receive whatever we ask from him, because we keep his and do what .And this is what he’s instructed: that we in the of his Son, Jesus , and that we love each other — just like he told us to.The person who keeps his instructions to God, and God remains connected to them. And this is how we know he lives in us — through he’s given us.