Montgomery - I John - 3

3:1  Behold what manner of love the Father has given us in allowing us to be called "Children of God!" And that is what we are. For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not know him.

3:2  We are God’s children now, beloved; what we shall be has never yet been made manifest. But we know that when he is manifested we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.

3:3  And every one who is holding this hope in him is purifying himself, even as he is pure.

3:4  Every one who commits sin commits also lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

3:5  And you know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin.

3:6  Whoever continually abides in him does not habitually sin; whoever lives in sin has not seen him, nor come to know him.

3:7  My children, let no one deceive you; he who is working righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

3:8  He who is committing sin is of the devil, because from the beginning of the devil is sinning. It was for this cause that the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

3:9  Whoever is a child of God cannot go on sinning, because his seed is abiding in him; and he cannot go on sinning because he is a child of God.

3:10  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; for every one who does not work righteousness is not a child of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

3:11  For this is the message that you have listened to from the beginning, "WE ARE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER."

3:12  We are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? It was because his own deeds were evil, and his brother’s, righteous.

3:13  Do not wonder, brothers, if the world continues to hate you.

3:14  We know that we have migrated, out of death into life, because we love our brothers. He who has no love is abiding in death.

3:15  Every one who is hating his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

3:16  By this we learn to know love, because he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

3:17  But whoever has this world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need, and shuts up his heart against him, how can the love of God continue to abide in him?

3:18  My children, let us not love in word nor in talk, but in deed and in truth.

3:19  By this we shall come to know that we are really of the truth,

3:20  and shall persuade our heart in his presence whenever our heart condemns us, because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

3:21  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have confidence toward God,

3:22  and whatever we ask we are receiving from him, because we are keeping his commandments and doing those things that are pleasing in his sight.

3:23  His commandment is this, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commanded us to do.

3:24  He who keeps his commandments is abiding in Him, and Christ in him. By this we know that Christ is abiding in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.