Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-16

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
⁸ He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
¹² No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.
¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
¹⁶ So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.