1 John 3

What it means to be a part of the Household of Love

I. Children of God

1 John 2:28 NIV

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

1 John 2:29 NIV

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

II. God’s love for his children

1 John 3:1 NIV

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:2 NIV

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:3 NIV

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

III. Remember whose you are

1 John 3:4 NIV

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

1 John 3:5 NIV

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

1 John 3:6 NIV

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:7 NIV

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

1 John 3:8 NIV

The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

1 John 3:9 NIV

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

1 John 3:10 NIV

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

IV. Love one another

1 John 3:11 NIV

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1 John 3:12 NIV

Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

1 John 3:13 NIV

Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

1 John 3:14 NIV

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

1 John 3:15 NIV

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

1 John 3:16 NIV

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 3:17 NIV

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?

1 John 3:18 NIV

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:19 NIV

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:

1 John 3:20 NIV

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 3:21 NIV

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

1 John 3:22 NIV

and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:23 NIV

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:24 NIV

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.

Galatians 3:28 NIV

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

His example wasn’t just obedience, it was love

1 John 4:7 NIV

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:8 NIV

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:9 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 John 4:10 NIV

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:11 NIV

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:12 NIV

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.