Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn"t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard.

Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the One who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have had victory over the evil one.

I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the One who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
God’s word remains in you,
and you have had victory over the evil one.

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.

I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.

So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.

>

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.

Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

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

This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.

This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,

Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.

The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us.

This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

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

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

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.

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

There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.

For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,

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.

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.