God’s Children

3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us: he lets us be called God’s children! For that is what we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it has not learned to know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. 3 And just as he is pure, everyone who has this hope, makes and keeps themselves pure.

4 Everyone who lives sinfully is living in violation of God’s law. Sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that Christ appeared to take away our sins and that there is no sin in him. 6 No one who lives in him continues to sin; the sinner has not seen or known him. 7 My children, don’t let anyone mislead you. The person who does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. 8 The person who lives in sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To undo the devil’s work is the reason the Son of God appeared.

9 No child of God sins, because God’s nature dwells in them. They can’t live in sin, because they are God’s children. 10 By this it is made clear who are the children of God and who are the devil’s: anyone who doesn’t do what is right or doesn’t love others is not a child of God. 11 For this is the message we heard from the beginning: we are to love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his actions were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.