10. This is the clear difference between God's children and the Devil's children: all who do not do what is right or do not love others are not God's children.
11. The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.
12. We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, but the things his brother did were right.
13. So do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the people of the world hate you.
14. We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love our brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love is still under the power of death.
15. All who hate others are murderers, and you know that murderers have not got eternal life in them.
16. This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers and sisters!
17. Rich people who see a brother or sister in need, yet close their hearts against them, cannot claim that they love God.
18. My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
19. This, then, is how we will know that we belong to the truth; this is how we will be confident in God's presence.
20. If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything.
21. And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God's presence.
22. We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
23. What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us.
24. Those who obey God's commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us.