If we say, 'We have fellowship with him,' when we live and move in darkness, then we are lying, we are not practising the truth;

If we say, 'We are not guilty,' we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us;

if we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar and his word is not within us.

My dear children, I am writing this to you that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father in Jesus Christ the just;

he is himself the propitiation for our sins, though not for ours alone but also for the whole world.

He who says, 'I know him,' but does not obey his commands, is a liar and the truth is not in him;

Beloved, I am not writing you any new command, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning: the old command is the word you have heard.

but he who hates his brother is in darkness, he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, for the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Love not the world, nor yet what is in the world; if anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the proud glory of life, belongs not to the Father but to the world;

They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.

I am not writing to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and know that no lie has any connexion with the truth.

but the unction you received from him remains within you, and you really need no teaching from anyone; simply remain in him, for his unction teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie ??remain in him, as it has taught you to do.

'Born of him!' Think what a love the Father has for us, in letting us be called 'children of God!' That is what we are. The world does not recognize us? That is simply because it did not recognize him.

We are children of God now, beloved; what we are to be is not apparent yet, but we do know that when he appears, we are to be like him ??for we are to see him as he is.

anyone who remains in him does not sin ??anyone who sins has neither seen nor known him.

Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin, for the offspring of God remain in Him, and they cannot sin, because they are born of God.

Here is how the children of God and the children of the devil are recognized; anyone who does not practise righteousness does not belong to God, and neither does he who has no love for his brother.

we are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the evil One and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's just.

Do not wonder, brothers, that the world hates you.

But whoever possesses this world's goods, and notices his brother in need, and shuts his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?

My dear children, let us put our love not into words or into talk but into deeds, and make it real.

If our heart does not condemn us, beloved, then we have confidence in approaching God,

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.

and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

we belong to God ??he who knows God listens to us, he who does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

he who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.

Love lies in this, not in our love for him but in his love for us ??in the sending of his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Love has no dread in it; no, love in its fulness drives all dread away, for dread has to do with punishment ??anyone who has dread, has not reached the fulness of love.

If anyone declares, 'I love God,' and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who will not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot possibly love the God whom he has never seen.

(for love to God means keeping his commands). And his commands are not irksome,

Jesus Christ, he it is who came by water, blood, and Spirit ??not by the water alone, but by the water and the blood.

He who believes in the Son of God possesses that testimony within himself; he who will not believe God, has made God a liar by refusing to believe the testimony which God has borne to his Son.

He who possesses the Son possesses life: he who does not possess the Son does not possess life.

If anyone notices his brother committing a sin which is not deadly, he will ask and obtain life for him ??for anyone who does not commit a deadly sin. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not mean he is to pray for that.

All iniquity is sin, but there are sins which are not deadly.

We know that anyone who is born of God does not sin; He who was born of God preserves him, and the evil One never catches him.