Day 95 – Love One Another

₁₁The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another. ₁₂We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, but the things his brother did were right.

₁₃So do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the people of the world hate you. ₁₄We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love our brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love is still under the power of death. ₁₅All who hate others are murderers, and you know that murderers have not got eternal life in them. ₁₆This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers and sisters! ₁₇Rich people who see a brother or sister in need, yet close their hearts against them, cannot claim that they love God. ₁₈My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.

₁₉This, then, is how we will know that we belong to the truth; this is how we will be confident in God's presence. ₂₀If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything. ₂₁And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God's presence. ₂₂We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. ₂₃What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us. ₂₄Those who obey God's commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us.

₁My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere. ₂This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. ₃But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.

₄But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world. ₅Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world. ₆But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

₇Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. ₈Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ₉And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. ₁₀This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

₁₁Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. ₁₂No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

₁₃We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit. ₁₄And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. ₁₅If anyone declares that Jesus is the Son of God, he lives in union with God and God lives in union with him. ₁₆And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us.

God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. ₁₇Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on Judgement Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's. ₁₈There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

₁₉We love because God first loved us. ₂₀If we say we love God, but hate our brothers and sisters, we are liars. For people cannot love God, whom they have not seen, if they do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen. ₂₁The command that Christ has given us is this: all who love God must love their brother or sister also.