I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ;

And this is the message that we have heard from Him and now announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone ever sins, we have One who pleads our case with the Father, Jesus Christ, One who is righteous.

By this we can be sure that we know Him -- if we practice obedience to His commands.

but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this we can be sure that we are in union with Him:

I write you this with reference to those who are trying to lead you astray,

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

And everyone who has this hope in him tries to make himself as pure as He is.

Whoever practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has practiced sin from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared, to undo the devil's works.

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.

it is so because the message that you have heard from the beginning is this: We should love one another.

In this way we shall know by experience that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

His command is this, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and practice loving one another, just as He commanded us to do.

Whoever practices obedience to His commands remains in union with Him and He in union with him; and in this way we know that He remains in union with us, by the Spirit that He has given us.

In this way you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spiritual utterance which owns that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

They are children of the world; this is why they speak what the world inspires, and why the world listens to them.

We are children of God. Whoever knows God by experience listens to us; whoever is not a child of God does not listen to us. This is the way to distinguish a true spiritual utterance from one that is false.

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

In this way is seen the true love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Our love attains perfection through our having perfect confidence about the day of judgment, because here in this world we are living as He did.

This is the command that we get from Him, that whoever loves God loves his brother too.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

For love to God means this, to practice obedience to His commands, and His commands are not burdensome,

He is the One who came through water and blood -- Jesus Christ; not through water only but through water and blood. The Spirit also testifies to this, because the Spirit is truth.

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; because this is the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his own heart. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

And this testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is given through union with His Son.

I have written this to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, so that you may know that you already have eternal life.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask for anything that is in accordance with His will, He will listen to us.