By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Parallel translations
- WEB In 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.
- KJV In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
- NKJV In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
- NASB By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.
- NLT So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Children of God and children of the devil are distinguished by righteousness and love. Right living and brotherly love mark the truly born again.
Overview
John gives two combined tests: doing righteousness and loving fellow believers. Those lacking these are not of God. This verse summarizes the moral and relational evidence of genuine faith and transitions into an extended treatment of love. Both holiness and love together reveal who truly belongs to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- 1 Jn 4:8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- 3 Jn 1:11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
- Matt 13:38The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
- Luke 6:35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
- John 8:44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
- 1 Jn 4:21And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
- 1 Jn 3:7–8Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.
- John 8:47Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
- 1 Jn 4:6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
- Eph 5:1Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,
- 1 Jn 4:3–4and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.
- 1 Jn 2:9–10If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness.
- 1 Jn 3:14–15We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
- Acts 13:10and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
- Rom 8:16–17The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
- 1 Jn 2:29If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
- 1 Jn 5:2By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.
- 1 Jn 5:19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
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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 3:10 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.
Original language
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