(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Children of God keep His commands
- Behold what kind of ^love the Father has given to us, so we might be called children of God; and we are. The world doesn’t know us because of this, because it didn’t know Him.
- Beloved, we are now children of God, and it wasn’t yet revealed what we will be. We *know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.
- And every man having this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
- Every man practicing sin also practices disregard for God’s commands,1“disregard for God’s commands” is one word in Greek, and is more literally “ignoring God’s law”. It’s a noun, and literally means “those who are without law”; i.e. those who – either by ignorance or by rebellion – don’t obey God’s (moral) law. and sin is disregard for God’s commands.
- And you *know that He was revealed so He might take away sins; and there is no sin in Him.
- Every man remaining in Him doesn’t continue in sin. Every man continually sinning hasn’t seen Him and hasn’t known Him.
- Little children, let no one mislead you; the man practicing righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous.
- The man practicing sin is from the Accuser because the Accuser sins from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this, so He might dissolve the works of the Accuser.
- Every man who has been born of God doesn’t practice sin because His seed remains in him, and he isn’t able to sin because he has been born of God.
- By this, the children of God and the children of the Accuser are obvious; every man not practicing righteousness isn’t of God, and neither is the man not ^loving his brother,
- because this is the message that you heard from the beginning so we might ^love one another.
- Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his works were evil but his brother’s were righteous.
- And so brothers, don’t marvel if the world hates you.
- We *know that we have passed over from death into life because we ^love our brothers. The man not ^loving remains in death.
- Every man hating his brother is a murderer, and you *know that every murderer doesn’t have the life of ages remaining in him.
- By this we have known ^love, because He laid down His life for our sake. And we’re obligated to lay down our lives for our brothers’ sake.
- But whoever has a livelihood in the world, and sees his brother having a need, and shuts his heart from his brother, how does the ^love of God remain in him?
- Little children, we shouldn’t ^love in word nor in tongue, but by action and truth.
- And by this we will know that we are of the truth, and will reassure our heart before Him,
- because if our heart condemns us, know that God is greater than our heart and He knows all things.
- Beloved, if our heart doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence towards God.
- And if2“if” many translations leave out the Greek conjunction “ἐὰν” (ean, which is roughly equivalent to the English word “if”) here due to the difficultly of translating the Greek grammar here to English Literally in Greek it’s: “and whatever if we ask we receive from Him…”. we ask, we receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commandments and do pleasing things in His sight.
- And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus the Anointed, and that we ^love one another, just as He gave the commandment to us.
- And the man keeping His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He remains in us, from the Spirit whom He gave to us.
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