1 John 3:21

When God forgives us, he *cleans us from all *sin. Then our consciences should not continue to blame us. When our consciences do not blame us, we can have confidence to come to God.

We have confidence that we can know God. We can live with him now. And we trust him for our future. We know that we can come to him. We can talk with him in prayer.

Verse 22

God answers our prayers because we please him

If our consciences do not accuse us, then we have confidence to come to God. We can come to God and pray to him. We receive what we ask for. God will give it because we obey him. We please him when we obey him. It is not that we earn the right to receive from him. He gives to us because he wants to.

Verse 23

God’s command is that we should love each other

This is God’s command to us. We must believe in Jesus Christ and we must love each other. These are two parts of the same command that we must obey. But the *Lord Jesus also gave us as a new command, that we should love each other (John 13:34).

We must have trust and confidence in Jesus Christ. We must agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Some of the false teachers tried to separate Jesus from the *Christ. They did not agree that Jesus the man was the Son of God.

The false teachers did not love as God demands. They could not because they did not have the love of God. They had not really believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They failed to believe that Jesus Christ died for our *sins.

Verse 24

God has given us his Spirit

Those who live in God will obey him. Those who obey God live in him. But we do not earn this unity with God. We do not receive it because of what we do. We live in God. And God lives in us. We know that this is true. We know it because God has sent his Spirit to be in us. God’s Spirit in us is the proof. We know that we remain in God. God’s Spirit helps us to obey God. His Spirit makes us able to believe and to love. Father ~ God the Father.
world ~ all that opposes God, the church, and Christians.
clean ~ perfect, without sin.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil things; not to obey God. Sins are the wrong things that we do.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil things; not to obey God. Sins are the wrong things that we do.
children ~ John was an old man when he wrote this letter. He knew well the Christians who would receive his letter. He thought about them as his own family. So, he called them ‘children’.
brother ~ John uses the word ‘brother’ to describe other Christians. Other Christians are like our relatives, because all Christians are children of God.
Lord ~ name for God in the Bible; name that we use for Jesus when we obey him; a title for Jesus, to show that he is over all.
holy ~ perfect, without sin.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil things; not to obey God. Sins are the wrong things that we do.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil things; not to obey God. Sins are the wrong things that we do.
gospel ~ the good news about Jesus; or, one of the first 4 books in the New Testament.

New Testament ~ the last part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after the life of Jesus.
eternal ~ without end.
children ~ John was an old man when he wrote this letter. He knew well the Christians who would receive his letter. He thought about them as his own family. So, he called them ‘children’.
Christ ~ Jesus is the Christ. The word ‘Christ’ means that God appointed Jesus to save us from our sins. And the word ‘Christ’ reminds us that, even in this world, Jesus was full of God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son of God. But some people taught that Jesus was only an ordinary man. They said that he was not always the Christ. In this letter (1 John), John explains why these people were wrong. John also writes in 1 John about ‘false Christs’. These false Christs are ordinary men. The devil, not God, appointed them. False Christs also speak by spirits. But they do not speak by God’s Holy Spirit. The spirits that control false Christs come from the devil.
save ~ rescue from the influence and result of sin.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil things; not to obey God. Sins are the wrong things that we do.
spirit ~ spirits are alive, but we cannot see them. There are good spirits usually called angels. Bad spirits (also called evil spirits, or demons) live in the air round us. Satan is their leader.
Satan ~ God’s chief enemy; the Devil.