¹⁰ Show family affection to one another with brotherly love.^(A) Outdo one another in showing honor.^(B)

Loving and Working

⁹ About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God^(A) to love one another.^(B)

Final Exhortations

13 Let brotherly love^(A) continue.

²² By obedience to the truth,^[a] having purified yourselves^[b] for sincere love of the brothers, love one another^(A) earnestly^[c] from a pure^[d] heart,^(B)

¹⁰ This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

The Command to Love

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.^(A)

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.^{(A) 15} Everyone who hates his brother^(B) is a murderer,^(C) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Love in Action

¹⁶ This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life^(D) for us.^(E) We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.^{(F) 17} If anyone has this world’s goods^(G) and sees his brother in need^(H) but closes his eyes^(I) to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?^(J)

Keeping God’s Commands

²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother,^(A) he is a liar.^(B) For the person who does not love his brother^(C) he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.^{[a] 21} And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.