1 SEE what love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why tho world does not know us is that it did not know him.

2 Beloved, we are now children of God and it is not yet plain what we shall be. But we know that if he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every one who has this hope set upon Christ purifies himself just as Christ is pure.

4 Every one who commits sin commits also lawlessness; for sin is lawlessness.

5 You know that Christ appeared to take away sins and in him there is no sin.

6 Whoever remains in him does not sin; whoever sins has not seen him nor known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who is doing righteousness is righteous as Christ is righteous.

8 He who is committing sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this the Son of God appeared \'97 to undo the works of the Devil.

9 No one who has been born of God commits sin, for God's life-giving germ remains in him and he cannot continue sinning, because he has been born of God.

10 By this the children of God are plain to see, also the children of the Devil. Every one who is not doing righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we must love one another.

12 Not like Cain, who was of the Wicked One and killed his brother. And for what reason did he kill him? Because his own deeds were wicked and his brother's righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. Whoever does not love remains in death.

15 Every one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has life eternal remaining in him.

16 By this we have come to know love \'97 that Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17 But if any one has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts away his sympathies from him, how can the love of God remain in him?

18 Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and shall give confidence to our hearts in his presence,

20 because if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knows all things.

21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence toward God,

22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

23 And this is his command \'97 to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he has given us command.

24 He who keeps his commands remains in God and God remains in him. By this we know that God remains in us \'97 by the Spirit which he has given to us.