If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,

and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

The one who says "I have come to know God" and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.

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

But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,

because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

I have not written to you that you do not know the truth, but that you do know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also.

Now as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes back.

(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God's children -- and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him.

Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.

Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God's seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness -- the one who does not love his fellow Christian -- is not of God.

not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother's were righteous.

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.

Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God,

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

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

In 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.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.

If anyone says "I love God" and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down,

Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood -- not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.)

The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.

If anyone sees his fellow Christian committing a sin not resulting in death, he should ask, and God will grant life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. There is a sin resulting in death. I do not say that he should ask about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not resulting in death.

We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.