4To commit sin is to break God's law: sin, in fact, is lawlessness. 5Christ appeared, as you know, to do away with sins, and there is no sin in him. 6No man therefore who dwells in him is a sinner; the sinner has not seen him and does not know him.
7My children, do not be misled: it is the man who does right who is righteous, as God is righteous; 8the man who sins is a child of the devil, for the devil has been a sinner from the first; and the Son of God appeared for the very purpose of undoing the devil's work.
9A child of God does not commit sin, because the divine seed remains in him; he cannot be a sinner, because he is God's child. 10That is the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil: no one who does not do right is God's child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11For the message you have heard from the beginning is this: that we should love one another; 12unlike Cain, who was a child of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were wrong, and his brother's were right.
13My brothers, do not be surprised if the world hates you. 14We for our part have crossed over from death to life; this we know, because we love our brothers. The man who does not love is still in the realm of death, 15for everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer, as you know, has eternal life dwelling within him. 16It is by this that we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us. And we in our turn are bound to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17But if a man has enough to live on, and yet when he sees his brother in need shuts up his heart against him, how can it be said that the divine love dwells in him?
18My children, love must not be a matter of words or talk; it must be genuine, and show itself in action.
19This is how we may know that we belong to the realm of truth, 20and convince ourselves in his sight that even if our conscience condemns us. God is greater than our conscience and knows all.
21Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, then we can approach God with confidence, 22and obtain from him whatever we ask, because we are keeping his commands and doing what he approves. 23This is his command: to give our allegiance to his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he commanded. 24When we keep his commands we dwell in him and he dwells in us. And this is how we can make sure that he dwells within us: we know it from the Spirit he has given us.
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