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!

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.

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:

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

We love because God first loved us.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.