1 John 3

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¹Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. ✦ ²Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ✦ ³And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. ✦ ⁴Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ✦ ⁵And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ✦ ⁶Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. ✦ ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ✦ ⁸He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ✦ ⁹Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. ✦ ¹⁰In 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. ✦ ¹¹For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ✦ ¹²not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. ✦ ¹³Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. ✦ ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. ✦ ¹⁵Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. ✦ ¹⁶By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ✦ ¹⁷But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? ✦ ¹⁸My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ✦ ¹⁹And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ✦ ²⁰For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ✦ ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ✦ ²²And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ✦ ²³And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. ✦ ²⁴Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given 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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