1 John 3:17-24

17When another believer has trouble, we need to be kind to him. Maybe you have all the things that you need to live. If you see another believer who needs things like that, you should help him. If you refuse to be kind to him, it shows that you do not belong to God. You do not love people in the way that God loves them.

18My little children, we should not show love for each other only by what we say. We should also show true love by the things that we do.

19Then we will know that we truly belong to God. We will be obeying God's true message. As a result, our thoughts will not make us ashamed to come to God.

20Even if our thoughts tell us that we have done something wrong, we still will not be afraid of God. We can trust God more than we trust our thoughts. He already knows everything about us.

21My friends, if our thoughts do not tell us that we are guilty, we will not be afraid to come to God.

22We can pray to God and we can ask him to help us. He will give us what we ask him for. That is because we obey his commands and we do the things that please him.

23This is God's command to us: we must believe that Jesus Christ is his Son. And we must love each other, as Jesus commanded us.

24Anyone who obeys God's commands lives together with God. God also lives in him. How do we know that God lives in us? It is because of his Holy Spirit that he has given to us.