If we make it our habit to confess our sins, in his faithful righteousness he forgives us for those sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

But if we keep living in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

These people belong to the world. That is why they speak from the world's perspective, and the world listens to them.

Dear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him.

See what kind of love the Father has given us: We are called God's children and that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him, either.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

For there are three witnesses in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

What existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed and touched with our own hands this is the Word of life!

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's.

This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness none at all!

This is how we have come to know love: the Messiah gave his life for us. We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers.

Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son.

And this is the confidence that we have in him: if we ask for anything according to his will, he listens to us.

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that an antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

We have come to know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love, and the person who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing.

There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.

This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

We love because God first loved us.

And there are three witnesses on earth the Spirit, the water, and the blood and these three are one.

because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

This is how God's love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him.

What we have seen and heard we declare to you so that you, too, can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah.

Even now, little children, abide in him. Then, when he appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from him in shame when he comes.

For this demonstrates our love for God: We keep his commandments, and his commandments are not difficult,

Little children, we must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must love also in action and in truth.

We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one.

They left us, but they were not part of us, for if they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. Their leaving made it clear that none of them was really part of us.

We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, his Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.

If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a brother in need and yet withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God be present in him?

The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.

For everything that is in the world the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance is not from the Father but is from the world.

No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.

Who is a liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? The person who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.

The anointing you received from God abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you this. Instead, because God's anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not a lie, abide in him, as he taught you to do.

Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead.

This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah has become human and remains so is from God.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life present in him.

This is the message that you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

This is how we know that we abide in him and he in us: he has given us his Spirit.

We have seen for ourselves and can testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure.

And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.

The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.

On the other hand, I am writing to you a new commandment that is truly in him and in you. For the darkness is fading away, and the true light is already shining.

And if we know that he listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask him for.

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that do not lead to death.

I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one.

This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in his presence.

And this is the commandment that we have from him: the person who loves God must also love his brother.

Who overcomes the world? Is it not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

What you have heard from the beginning must abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because lies don't come from truth.

I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus the Messiah, and to love one another as he commanded us.

The person who believes in the Son of God believes this testimony personally. The person who does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony that he has given about his Son.

This is how love has been perfected among us: we will have confidence on the day of judgment because, during our time in this world, we are just like him.

This life was revealed to us, and we have seen it and testify about it. We declare to you this eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

Little children, keep yourselves away from idols.

This man, Jesus the Messiah, is the one who came by water and blood not with water only, but with water and with blood. The Spirit is the one who verifies this, because the Spirit is the truth.

Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God's love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Little children, don't let anyone deceive you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, just as the Messiah is righteous.

Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love one another.

This is how God's children and the Devil's children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.

Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater, because it is the testimony of God and because he has testified about his Son.

God abides in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and he abides in God.

Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

This is how we know that we love God's children: we love God and keep his commandments.

The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

No one who remains in union with him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in us.

We are writing these things so that our joy may be full.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.

The message that the Son himself declared to us is eternal life.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one.

So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.