1 John 2:29-4:6
New Catholic Bible
Children of God
Everyone Whose Life Is Righteous Has Been Born of God[a]
29 If you know that he is righteous,
you also know that everyone whose life is righteous
is born of him.
Chapter 3
1 See what love
the Father has bestowed on us,
enabling us to be called the children of God,
and that is what we are.
If the world does not recognize us,
that is because it did not know him.
2 Beloved,
we are God’s children now.
What we shall be
has not yet been revealed.
However, we do know that when he appears
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he really is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him
keeps himself pure,
just as he is pure.
The Rupture with Sin[b]
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law,
for sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that he appeared
in order to take away sins,
and that there is no sin in him.
6 Whoever remains in him does not sin,[c]
and whoever sins has not seen him
nor known him.
7 Dear children,
do not let anyone deceive you.
Everyone who does what is right is righteous,
just as he is righteous.
8 Everyone who sins comes from the devil,
for the devil has been a sinner
from the very beginning.
The Son of God appeared for this very purpose:
to destroy the work of the devil.
9 Whoever is born of God
does not sin,
because his seed[d] remains in him.
He cannot sin
because he is begotten by God.
10 This is what distinguishes
the children of God from the children of the devil:
anyone who fails to live righteously
does not belong to God;
neither does anyone who fails to love a brother.
The Message of Love[e]
11 For from the beginning
you have heard the message
that we should love one another,
12 unlike Cain who was from the evil one
and slew his brother.
And why did he slay him?
Because his own deeds were evil
while those of his brother were righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, my brethren,
if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed
from death to life
because we love our brethren.
Whoever does not love remains in death.
15 Anyone who hates his brother
is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer
has eternal life abiding in him.
16 This is how we know what love is:
he laid down his life for us,
and we in turn must be prepared
to lay down our lives for our brethren.
17 If anyone is rich in worldly possessions
and sees a brother in need
but refuses to open his heart,
how can the love of God abide in him?
18 Dear children,
let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.[f]
19 This is how we know
that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts in his presence
20 even if our hearts experience a sense of guilt.
For God is greater than our hearts,
and he knows everything.
21 Beloved,
if our hearts do not condemn us,
we can approach God with confidence
22 and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we obey his commandments
and do whatever is pleasing to him.[g]
23 And this is his commandment:
that we should believe
in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.[h]
24 All those who keep his commandments abide in him,
and he abides in them.
And the proof that he abides in us
is the Spirit that he has given us.
Chapter 4
The Spirit of the Antichrist in the World[i]
1 Beloved,
do not trust every spirit,
but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God.
For many false prophets
have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh[j]
is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
is not from God.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist,
about whose coming you have been told,
and that it is already in the world.
4 Dear children,
you are from God[k]
and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world;
therefore, what they say is from the world,
and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God.
Anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who is not from God
refuses to listen to us.
This is how we can distinguish
the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.[l]
Footnotes
- 1 John 2:29 The author takes ideas already expressed and develops them in new ways. In ch. 1:5-7 he used the phrase “God is light”; now he expresses the new theme that “God is righteous.” God forgives human beings, bestowing upon them a condition in which they can stand before him. Here, too, it is not a question of abstract ideas but of life practices. What a bold affirmation about the Divine Sonship; what a dizzying perspective of a faith that must one day go beyond itself in the full vision of God!
- 1 John 3:4 Breaking away from sin does not take place by delighting in sublime thoughts but by the action of God in Jesus Christ. For it is Christ alone who is without sin (see Jn 8:26). And it is not words but deeds that bear witness to this liberation. To what options or influences does our life cling? Is it in the grip of the devil or does it cling to the word of God? Certainly, sin is part of the daily life of believers (1 Jn 1:8-10), but we are speaking about the fundamental and general choice between sin and righteousness. Which do we choose?
- 1 John 3:6 Whoever remains in him does not sin: the author is not speaking about sinless perfection (see 1 Jn 1:8—2:1). He is simply asserting that the life of believers is dominated not by sin but by doing the right thing.
- 1 John 3:9 His seed: a reference to Christ (see 1 Jn 5:18; Gal 3:16) or to the Holy Spirit (see 1 Jn 2:20-27) or to the seed of Divine life that God introduced into us.
- 1 John 3:11 There are two attitudes toward life—hate and love, murder and the offering of one’s life. Cain is the Biblical prototype of all the homicidal impulses that arise in the human heart (see Gen 4; Heb 11:4); these come together in what the author’s language terms “the world.” This symbolizes death. Christian behavior—which is life, love, and offering of self—draws us away from the world. Christ gives us both the power to do so and the example to follow in the concrete reality of his Passion. Believers must do likewise. They can count on God’s mercy. Verse 23, which expresses the whole intent of the Letter, brings out clearly the mind of the author in regard to the growing Gnosticism.
- 1 John 3:18 Like James, John insists on the value of good works. Love is not a mere matter of lip service; it must be seen and known in actions. Beautiful words are meaningless if they are not accompanied by good deeds.
- 1 John 3:22 Believers who have a good conscience desire nothing that is contrary to God’s honor and glory. They will trust in God, who will give them the good things they request (see Ps 84:12).
- 1 John 3:23 This commandment has two parts: (1) belief in Christ (see Jn 6:29) and (2) love for one another (see Jn 13:34f). The Letter develops part one in 4:1-6 and the second part in 4:7-12.
- 1 John 4:1 We must learn to discern the thoughts of human beings—the “spirits.” Among the teachers and theorists that had appeared at this time there were those who did not acknowledge Jesus as the Lord and Savior and wished to impose their views on the Christian communities. John says that this is perversion, the appearance of false christs of the end times (see 1 Jn 2:18-22). He strengthens believers by telling them that they do not belong to the world, i.e., this universe that delights in its limitations and its own insignificances. They must believe in the Gospel of God proclaimed by the witnesses who have been sent, among whom he places himself by saying “We are from God” (v. 6).
- 1 John 4:2 Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: see note on 1 Jn 1:1. John excludes the Gnostics, especially those known as Cerinthians, who taught that the Divine Christ came upon the human Christ at his Baptism and left him at the Cross—thus claiming that only the man Jesus died.
- 1 John 4:4 From God: another expression for “born of God” (1 Jn 2:29; 3:9). The one who is in the world: the devil (see Jn 12:31; 16:11).
- 1 John 4:6 Spirit of truth . . . spirit of falsehood: this refers to the theme of the two spirits, which is similar to the theme of the two ways (see Deut 11:26; Mt 7:13-14). Confronted by two worlds, those who live on earth choose one or the other by partaking of the spirit of either one (see 1 Jn 3:8, 19). However, those who choose the right one (the spirit of truth) will attain certain victory (see 1 Jn 2:13f; 4:4; 5:4f).
