God's children1The love the Father has lavished on us is so great it cannot be put into words adequately. What a wonder it is that we should be called God's children! And this is precisely what He has made us. The world does not understand this, because those who belong to the world do not know Him. Therefore they cannot recognise us for what we are by His grace.2Dear friends, He has already made us His children and it is still to be revealed what we will become when Jesus comes again. However, we do know this, that at that time we shall be like Him. Yes, when we see Him in the fullness of who He is, we shall be transformed into His likeness.3Everyone who believes this wonderful truth keeps himself pure in the way he lives, for Christ Jesus is pure; we are one with Him and our destiny is to be united with Him forever. This is our hope.4What a contrast with those who live lawless, sinful lives, who have no heart for God's purposes.5How thankful you can be that when Jesus came for the first time it was to free us from our sins. You see, in Him there is no sin.6Now you live in Him and those who continue to live in Him do not continue in a life of sin. Anyone who persists in a life of sin has clearly no personal knowledge of Him and does not see Him for who He truly is!7Dear children, do not allow anyone to lead you away from the truth. You are to live in ways that please the Lord. This means that you will do what is right, just as Jesus your Lord always does what is right.8The person who walks in sin serves the devil, because it has always been the devil's nature to sin. The Son of God came to destroy the devil's work on the cross.9So no-one who has received the new birth that God alone can give will continue to live in sin. No, he has the seed of God planted within him and that seed remains in him. So it is not possible for him to continue in a life of sin because he has received a second birth from God.10This is how we know who have received that second birth and are God's children and who remain as the devil's children. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who fails to love his brother.Love for your brothers11This is the same message that you heard at the very beginning of your life as a Christian: You are called to love your fellow believers and allow them to love you.12So do not be like Cain. Because he belonged to the evil one, he murdered his brother. Why did he do such a thing? He was jealous because what he did was wrong in God's eyes, but what his brother did was right.13So do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world is against you, hates you even.14We know that we have passed through death with Jesus on the cross to the new life we have in Him, and the evidence of this is that we now love our brothers. You see, anyone who does not love in this way remains spiritually dead.15So anyone who has no love for his brother is a murderer like Cain. And you know full well that no murderer has God's eternal life in him.16We have a way of knowing what true love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. That is true love. And we ought, therefore, to lay down our lives for our brothers in true love.17I will give you an example of what this means in practice. If someone has financial resources and sees one of his brothers in need, yet he has no compassion on him and does nothing to help him, how can you imagine that he has God's love in him?18Dear children, it means nothing to say you love others; it is only your actions that show whether you truly love them or not.19-20This is how you can be sure that you or anyone else belongs to the truth, and how you can be at peace with God when in His presence, without any condemnation in your heart. For God is far greater than our hearts and He knows and understands everything that is going on in our lives.Anything we ask21-22My dear friends, if there is nothing in our hearts to make us feel condemned, we can have confidence before God when we pray and so are able to receive from Him anything we ask. This is because we are living in obedience to His commands and are doing what pleases Him.23And this is His command, as you know well: first to believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son, your Saviour and Lord, and then to love others and allow them to love you, as He has commanded us.24Those who obey His commands show they continue to live in Him and He lives in them. We can be sure that He does live in us because He has given us His Spirit.
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE TRUTH VERSION. Copyright © 2009 by Colin Urquhart. All rights reserved worldwide. (The Truth New Testament)