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If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
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Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
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This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:
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If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
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Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
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and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
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And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
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The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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On Denying the Incarnation
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
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This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
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but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
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You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
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We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
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God’s Love and Ours
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
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Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
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This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
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No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
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And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
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This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
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There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
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We love because he first loved us.
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Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
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And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
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Faith in the Incarnate Son of God
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
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This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
