3 ¹ How great is the love that the Father has shown to us! We were called God's children, and such we are; and the reason why the godless world does not recognize us is that it has not known him. 3 ² Here and now, dear friends, we are God's children; what we shall be has not yet been disclosed, but we know that when it is disclosed we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 ³ Everyone who has this hope before him purifies himself, as Christ is pure.
3 ⁴ To commit sin is to break God's law: sin, in fact, is lawlessness. 3 ⁵ Christ appeared, as you know, to do away with sins, and there is no sin in him. 3 ⁶ No man therefore who dwells in him is a sinner; the sinner has not seen him and does not know him.
3 ⁷ My children, do not be misled: it is the man who s does right who is righteous, as God is righteous; 3 ⁸ the 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.
3 ⁹ A 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. 3 ¹⁰ That 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.