1 Look at the amazing kind of love the Father has for us! This is why we can be called God's children—for that's who we are! The reason why the people of this world don't recognize us as God's children is because they don't recognize him. 2 My friends, we are already God's children; however what we shall become hasn't been revealed just yet. But we do know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. 3 All those who have this hope in them make sure they are pure, just as he is pure. 4 All those who sin are lawless, because sin is lawlessness. 5 But of course you know that Jesus came to take away sins, and that there is no sin in him. 6 All those who live in him don't go on sinning; all those who keep on sinning haven't seen him and haven't known him. 7 Dear friends, don't let anyone fool you: those who do what is right are right, in the same way as Jesus is right. 8 Those who sin are of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. That's the reason why the Son of God came—to destroy what the devil has done. 9 All those who are born of God don't keep on sinning, for God's nature lives in them. They can't keep on sinning because they are born of God. 10 This is how God's children and the devil's children can be distinguished: all those who don't do what's right don't belong to God, nor do those who don't love their fellow Christians. 11 The message you've heard from the beginning is simply this: we should love one another. 12 We cannot be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one, and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because Cain did what was evil, while his brother did what was right. 13 So don't be surprised, my friends, if this world hates you! 14 The reason we know that we have changed from death to life is because we love our Christian brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love remains dead. 15 All those who hate their Christian brothers and sisters are murderers, and you know that no murderers have eternal life within them! 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. 17 If one of you is living well in this world and you see your Christian brother or sister in need, but you don't show compassion—how can God's love be living in you? 18 Dear friends, let's not just say we love with words, but show our love in what we do and how we demonstrate the truth. 19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth, and how we will set our minds at rest before God 20 whenever we think we're in the wrong. God is greater than how we think, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we're reassured we're not in the wrong, we can have confidence before God. 22 We'll receive from him whatever we ask him for, because we follow his commands and do what pleases him. 23 This is what he commands: we should trust in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us to do. 24 Those who keep his commands continue to live in him, and he lives in them. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit he has given us.
1 John 3 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 4:5–6; John 3:16
- 2 Philippians 3:21; Colossians 3:4; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Psalm 17:15
- 3 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 John 2:6; 2 Peter 3:14; Matthew 5:48; Hebrews 12:14
- 4 1 John 5:17; Romans 3:20; Romans 4:15; Numbers 15:31; 1 John 3:8–9
- 5 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 9:26
- 6 3 John 11; 1 John 2:4; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:8; John 15:4–7
- 7 1 John 2:29; Romans 2:13; 1 Peter 1:15–16; 1 John 3:3; 1 John 2:26
- 8 Hebrews 2:14; John 8:44; Colossians 2:15; John 16:11; John 12:31
- 9 1 John 5:18; 1 Peter 1:23; John 1:13; 1 John 5:1; 1 John 2:29
- 10 1 John 4:8; 3 John 11; 1 John 4:21; Matthew 13:38; John 8:44
- 11 John 15:12; 2 John 5; 1 John 4:7; John 13:34–35; 1 Peter 3:8
- 12 Hebrews 11:4; Genesis 4:4–15; Proverbs 29:27; Genesis 4:25; Jude 11
- 13 John 15:18–19; John 17:14; Luke 21:17; 2 Timothy 3:12; Luke 6:22
- 14 1 John 5:2; John 13:35; John 5:24; 1 John 4:20–21; 1 Thessalonians 4:9
- 15 Matthew 5:21–22; Revelation 21:8; Proverbs 26:24–26; John 8:44; Leviticus 19:16–18
- 16 1 John 4:9–11; Ephesians 5:2; John 13:34; John 3:16; Romans 5:8
- 17 Hebrews 13:16; Isaiah 58:7–10; Deuteronomy 15:7–11; 1 John 4:20; Proverbs 19:17
- 18 James 2:15–16; Romans 12:9; 1 Peter 1:22; Galatians 5:13; 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
- 19 Hebrews 10:22; 1 John 3:21; Isaiah 32:17; Hebrews 6:10–11; John 18:37
- 20 Psalm 139:1–4; Jeremiah 17:10; Hebrews 4:13; 1 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 4:4
- 21 1 John 2:28; Hebrews 4:16; 2 Corinthians 1:12; Psalm 101:2; Psalm 7:3–5
- 22 John 15:7; John 9:31; Matthew 21:22; 1 John 5:14; Mark 11:24
- 23 John 6:29; John 13:34; 1 Peter 1:22; John 15:12; 1 Peter 4:8
- 24 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 John 4:15–16; 1 John 4:12–13; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Hear intently, I do beseech you, because it is no small matter that we have to cope withal: and I doubt not, because ye were intent upon it yesterday, that ye have with even greater intentness of purpose come together to-day.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
… ever, which now appeareth unto us in the dark image of the clouds, and through the glass of the heavens, not as it is; because we also, although we be the well-beloved of Thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looketh through the lattice of our flesh, and He is fair-speaking, and hath inflamed …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
The devil then is the first author of sin, and the father of the wicked: and this is the Lord's saying, not mine, that the devil sinneth from the beginning: none sinned before him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
"He that soweth to the spirit," it is said, "shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." John too writes, "Hereby we know that he abideth in us by (ek) the spirit which he hath given us." "That which is conceived in her," says the angel, "is of the Holy Ghost," and the Lord says "that which is born of the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
… eluded; and he who will not piously submit himself to things as they are, proudly feigns, and mocks himself with a state of things that does not exist; so that what the blessed Apostle John says thus becomes intelligible: "The devil sinneth from the beginning," --that is, from the time he was created he refused righteousness, which none but a …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)