If we love other Christians, it proves that we have been delivered from hell and given eternal life. But a person who doesn’t have love for others is headed for eternal death.

Anyone who hates his Christian brother is really a murderer at heart; and you know that no one wanting to murder has eternal life within.

We know what real love is from Christ’s example in dying for us. And so we also ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers.

But if someone who is supposed to be a Christian has money enough to live well, and sees a brother in need, and won’t help him—how can God’s love be within him?

Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.

Then we will know for sure, by our actions, that we are on God’s side, and our consciences will be clear, even when we stand before the Lord.

But if we have bad consciences and feel that we have done wrong, the Lord will surely feel it even more, for he knows everything we do.

But, dearly loved friends, if our consciences are clear, we can come to the Lord with perfect assurance and trust,

and get whatever we ask for because we are obeying him and doing the things that please him.

And this is what God says we must do: Believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.

Those who do what God says—they are living with God and he with them. We know this is true because the Holy Spirit he has given us tells us so.

Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around,

and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.

If not, the message is not from God but from one who is against Christ, like the “Antichrist” you have heard about who is going to come, and his attitude of enmity against Christ is already abroad in the world.

Dear young friends, you belong to God and have already won your fight with those who are against Christ because there is someone in your hearts who is stronger than any evil teacher in this wicked world.

These men belong to this world, so, quite naturally, they are concerned about worldly affairs and the world pays attention to them.

But we are children of God; that is why only those who have walked and talked with God will listen to us. Others won’t. That is another way to know whether a message is really from God; for if it is, the world won’t listen to it.

Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and that they are getting to know him better.

But if a person isn’t loving and kind, it shows that he doesn’t know God—for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into this wicked world to bring to us eternal life through his death.

In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God but his love for us when he sent his Son to satisfy God’s anger against our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us as much as that, we surely ought to love each other too.

For though we have never yet seen God, when we love each other God lives in us, and his love within us grows ever stronger.

And furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now tell all the world that God sent his Son to be their Savior.

Anyone who believes and says that Jesus is the Son of God has God living in him, and he is living with God.