Remaining in his Love

How great is the love the Father has lavished on me that I should be called a child of God! And that is what I am! Now I am God’s child, and what I will be has not yet been made known. But I know that when he appears I shall be like him, for I shall see him as he is. Because I have this hope I purify myself, just as he is pure.

As the Father has loved Jesus, so Jesus has loved me. Now I remain in his love. If I obey his commands I will remain in his love, just as he obeyed his Father’s commands and remained in his love. Because of these truths his joy is in me and my joy is made complete. If I remain in Jesus and his words remain in me, I can ask whatever I wish and it will be given to me. This is to the Father’s glory, that I bear much fruit, showing myself to be his disciple.

The anointing I received from him remains in me and I do not need anyone to teach me. But as this anointing teaches me about all things, and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught me, I remain in him. I continue in him, so that when he appears I may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

I do not let anyone lead me astray. If I do what is right I am righteous, just as he is righteous. He 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 works. Because I am born of God I will not continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in me; I cannot go on sinning, because I have been born of God.

By obeying his commands I live in him, and he in me. And this is how I know he lives in me: I know it by the Spirit he gave me. Because I love Jesus I will obey his teaching. The Father will love me and he and Jesus come to me and make their home with me. If I continue in the teaching of Jesus, I have both the Father and the Son. I pray that my love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that I may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Just as I received Christ Jesus as Lord, I continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as I was taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

(1 John 3:1—3; John 15:9—11, 7—8; 1 John 2:27—8; 3:7—9, 24; John 14:23; 2 John 1:9; Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 2:6—7)