1 John 3

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¹See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. ✦ ²Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. ✦ ³Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. ✦ ⁴Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. ✦ ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. ✦ ⁶Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him. ✦ ⁷Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. ✦ ⁸He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. ✦ ⁹Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. ✦ ¹⁰In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. ✦ ¹¹For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; ✦ ¹²unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous. ✦ ¹³Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. ✦ ¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. ✦ ¹⁵Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ✦ ¹⁶By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ✦ ¹⁷But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? ✦ ¹⁸My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. ✦ ¹⁹And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, ✦ ²⁰because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ✦ ²¹Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; ✦ ²²and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. ✦ ²³This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. ✦ ²⁴He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

1 Jn 4 ·22 1 Jn 2 ·20 1 Jn 3 ·16 1 Jn 5 ·15 John 15 ·12 Rom 8 ·10 1 Pet 1 ·9 Eph 5 ·8

Christ at the center

Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'

How 1 John 3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

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★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — 1 John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on 1 John 3YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — 1 John 3David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on 1 JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — 1 John 3Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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