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4Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
²for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
³When I was a son with my father,
tender, and my mother’s favorite,
⁴he taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
⁵Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.
⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
⁹She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.” ¹⁰Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered;
and if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what they stumble over.
²⁰My child, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
²²For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
²³Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
²⁶Keep straight the path of your feet,
and all your ways will be sure.
²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.