That which was from the beginning, which we have listened to, which we have seen with our own eyes, and our own hands have handled concerning the Word of Life--

that which we have seen and listened to we now announce to you also, in order that you also may have fellowship in it with us, and this fellowship with us is fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

And we write these things in order that our joy may be made complete.

If we confess our sins, He is so faithful and just that He forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

If we deny that we have sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Message has no place in our hearts.

Dear children, I write thus to you in order that you may not sin. If any one sins, we have an Advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ the righteous;

And by this we may know that we know Him--if we obey His commands.

But whoever obeys His Message, in him love for God has in very deed reached perfection. By this we can know that we are in Him.

My dearly-loved friends, it is no new command that I am now giving you, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning. By the old command I mean the teaching which you have already received.

Dear children, the last hour has come; and as you once heard that there was to be an anti-Christ, so even now many anti-Christs have appeared. By this we may know that the last hour has come.

They have gone forth from our midst, but they did not really belong to us; for had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left us that it might be manifest that professed believers do not all belong to us.

I have written to you, not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you know it, and you know that nothing false comes from the truth.

Who is a liar compared with him who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He who disowns the Father and the Son is the anti-Christ.

As for you, let the teaching which you have received from the very beginning continue in your hearts. If that teaching does continue in your hearts, you also will continue to be in union with the Son and with the Father.

And now, dear children, continue in union with Him; so that, if He re-appears, we may have perfect confidence, and may not shrink away in shame from His presence at His Coming.

Since you know that He is righteous, be assured also that the man who habitually acts righteously is a child of His.

See what marvellous love the Father has bestowed upon us--that we should be called God's children: and that is what we are. For this reason the world does not recognize us--because it has not known Him.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been fully revealed. We know that if Christ reappears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

For this is the Message you have heard from the beginning--that we are to love one another.

As for us, we know that we have already passed out of death into Life--because we love our brother men. He who is destitute of love continues dead.

Every one who hates his brother man is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has the Life of the Ages continuing in him.

But if any one has this world's wealth and sees that his brother man is in need, and yet hardens his heart against him--how can such a one continue to love God?

And in this way we shall come to know that we are loyal to the truth, and shall satisfy our consciences in His presence

And this is His command--that we are to believe in His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us to do.

The man who obeys His commands continues in union with God, and God continues in union with him; and through His Spirit whom He has given us we can know that He continues in union with us.

The test by which you may recognize the Spirit of God is that every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come as man is from God,

and that no spirit is from God which does not acknowledge this about Jesus. Such is the spirit of the anti-Christ; of whose coming you have heard, and it is already in the world.

They are the world's children, and so their language is that of the world, and the world listens to them. We are God's children.

God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.

We can know that we are continuing in union with Him and that He is continuing in union with us, by the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit.

And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God--God continues in union with him, and he continues in union with God.

If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God; and every one who loves the Father loves also Him who is the Father's Child.

The fact that we love God Himself, and obey His commands, is a proof that we love God's children.

Who but the man that believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world?

For there are three that give testimony-- the Spirit, the water, and the blood;

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in his own heart: he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, in that he has refused to accept the testimony which God has given about His Son.

And that testimony is to the effect that God has given us the Life of the Ages, and that this Life is in His Son.

I write all this to you in order that you who believe in the Son of God may know for certain that you already have the Life of the Ages.

And we have an assured confidence that whenever we ask anything in accordance with His will, He listens to us.

And since we know that He listens to us, then whatever we ask, we know that we have the things which we have asked from Him.

If any one sees a brother man committing a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and God shall give him life--for those who do not sin unto death. There is such a thing as sin unto death; for that I do not bid him make request.

We know that no one who is a child of God lives in sin, but He who is God's Child keeps him, and the Evil one cannot touch him.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we know the true One, and are in union with the true One--that is, we are in union with His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the Life of the Ages.