This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life --

and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).

But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

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,

Now this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.

(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.

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.

For this is the gospel message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,

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.

Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

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.

Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God.

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

By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.

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.

Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.

By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world.

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.

We love because he loved us first.

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.

And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.

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

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in 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.

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 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.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.