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Report a Typo1John ◦ Chapter 5
1Everyone who trusts Jesus–God's healing Remedy–is recreated in heart and mind and is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Creator loves those he created.2This is how we know that we love the beings God created — by loving God and living in harmony with his methods and principles of self-sacrificing love.3Those who genuinely love God will live lives that reveal him–lives that are in harmony with his commandments. And his commandments are not a burden placed upon us which we must perform,4but the natural outgrowth of love–the victory over this selfish world that everyone who is healed by God experiences; and this victory over fear and selfishness is achieved when we trust God.5Who is it that overcomes the survival-of-the-fittest principle of this world? Only those who recognize and accept that Jesus is God's Son.6Jesus is the one who, by water and blood, became our Remedy. He became our Remedy not by being born into the world only, but also by shedding his blood. And the Spirit of God bears witness to it, because the Spirit reveals all truth.7For there are three that confirm this truth:8the Spirit, the evidence at Christ's baptism with water, and the evidence of his bloody death; and all three are in agreement that Jesus is the Messiah!9We readily accept the testimony or word of people; but God's testimony is more reliable, because God testifies about his Son with evidence and truth.10Those who trust in God’s Son have accepted the truth, had the lies expelled from their hearts, and are therefore won back to trust. Anyone who doesn’t trust God is claiming that God is a liar, because such a one has rejected as false the truth and evidence God has given about his Son.11And this is the truth and evidence: God has poured his eternal life into humanity, and this eternal, original, unborrowed life is in his Son.12One who has come into unity of heart, mind and character with the Son has been healed and is a partaker of this eternal life; one who has not come into unity of heart, mind and character with the Son of God remains terminal and does not partake of this eternal life.13I write these things to you who trust in Jesus and value his character, methods and principles, so that you will know you have been healed and have eternal life.14We can therefore be confident in approaching God, because we know he is eager to hear whatever we ask in harmony with his will.15And since we know he gladly hears us, we know that we have what we have asked of him.16If you see a fellow Christian who desires to be Christlike commit an act of sin, you should talk with God about them, knowing that God will completely heal them and give them life if they open their heart in trust to God. Such sin does not result in eternal death, as it is merely a residual symptom of a heart in the process of being healed. However, there is no use in asking God to heal and give eternal life to the sinners who close their hearts to God and stubbornly refuse to allow God to heal them. Love cannot be forced, and God cannot force people to love and trust him, so there is no use in praying for God to force people to accept him.17All violations of love are sin, but violations of love which occur in someone who opens their heart to God do not lead to eternal death.18We know that anyone who is recreated in heart and mind by God does not continue to live selfishly: Jesus–God’s Son–fills their mind with truth and their heart with love, and Satan’s lies and selfish motives can no longer harm such a person.19We know that we are in unity of heart, mind and character with God, but the world is in unity with Satan.20We also know that Jesus, God’s Son, has come and enlightened our minds with the truth–the truth about God, the nature of sin, the character of Satan, and the issues in this conflict between good and evil–so that we may come into full union and intimacy of heart and mind with God who is true; and we are in oneness with the Father of truth, and with his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the source of all life.21Therefore, my dear children, always reject lies about God and any false concept about the character of God.