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They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them.(A) We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.(B)

God’s Love and Christian Life. [a]Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:7–12 Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can “see” the invisible God.