See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does
not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has
not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is.
And everyone who thus
hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices
lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
You know that he
appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
No one who abides in
him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known
him.
Little children, let
no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is
righteous.
Whoever makes a
practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil.
No one born of God
makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep
on sinning because he has been born of God.
By this it is evident
who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever
does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love
his brother.
For this is the message that you have heard from the
beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 3
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