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.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone does sin, we have in Jesus Christ one who is upright and will intercede for us with the Father.

He is himself an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world.

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

But whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and is living in darkness, and he does not know where he is going, for the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone loves the world, there is no love for the Father in his heart,

for all that there is in the world, the things that our physical nature and our eyes crave, and the proud display of life??hese do not come from the Father, but from the world;

They have gone out from our number, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to make it clear that none of them really belonged to us that they withdrew.

I do not write to you because you do not know it, but because you do know it, and because no lie can come from the truth.

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.

This is how the children of God and those of the devil can be distinguished: No one who does not act uprightly or who does not love his brother is a child of God.

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.

You must not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you!

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love is still in death.

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?

Dear children, let us love not with words or lips only but in reality and truth.

Dear friends, if our consciences do not condemn us, we approach God with confidence,

Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world.

and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

We are God's children. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not a child of God will not listen to us. In this way we can tell what is inspired by truth from what is inspired by error.

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

The love consists not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

For loving God means obeying his commands, and his commands are not burdensome,

It was he, Jesus Christ himself, who came in water and in blood; not in water only, but in water and in blood. The Spirit also testifies to this, for the Spirit is truth.

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.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever has not the Son has not life.

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.

Any wrongdoing is sin, but there are sins that are not deadly.