This is the message that we heard from him and announce to you: God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.

If we say, "We have fellowship with him," and yet live in darkness, we are lying and not living the truth.

If we say, "We have not sinned," we are making him a liar, and his message is not in our hearts.

This is how we can be sure that we know him??y obeying his commands.

Whoever says, "I know him," but does not obey his commands, is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

but whoever obeys his message really has the love of God in perfection in his heart. This is the way we can be sure that we are in union with him;

whoever says, "I am always in union with him" must live just as he lived.

Yet it is a new command that I am writing you; it is newly realized in him and in yourselves, for the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have been victorious over the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God's message is always in your hearts, and you have been victorious over the evil one.

You still retain in your hearts the anointing with the Spirit that you received from him, and you do not need to have anyone teach you. But just as that anointing of his teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, keep in union with him just as it has taught you to do.

Now, dear children, keep in union with him, so that if he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame when he comes.

Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are??ecause it has never come to know him.

Dear friends, we are God's children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who possesses this hope in him tries to make himself as pure as he is.

You know that he appeared to take our sins away, and that there is no sin in him.

No one who keeps in union with him sins. Anyone who sins has never seen him or come to know him.

We must not be like Cain who was a child of the evil one, and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's upright.

But if someone who is rich sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can he have any love for God in his heart?

and we obtain from him whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.

All who obey his commands keep in union with him, and he does with them; and this is how we know that he keeps in union with us??y the Spirit which he has given us.

God's love for us has been revealed in this way??hat God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we love one another, God keeps in union with us and love for him attains perfection in our hearts.

This is the way we know that we keep in union with him and he does with us??ecause he has given us some of his Spirit.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God keeps in union with him and he with God.

So we know and believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love keeps in union with God, and God with him.

This is the command that we get from him, that whoever loves God must love his brother also.

Whoever believes in the Son of God possesses that testimony in his heart. Anyone who will not believe God has made him a liar, for he has refused to believe the testimony that God has borne to his Son.

And we have confidence in him, that if we ask him for anything that is in accordance with his will, he will listen to us.

And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him for, we know that the requests we have made of him are granted.

If anyone sees his brother committing any sin except a deadly one, he will ask and obtain life for him??rovided the sin is not a deadly one. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not say that a man should pray about that.

We know that no child of God commits sin, but the fact that he is God's child protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us power to recognize him who is true; and we are in union with him who is true, through his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.