What we have seen and heard we declare to you so that you, too, can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah.

This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness none at all!

If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in us.

This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

On the other hand, I am writing to you a new commandment that is truly in him and in you. For the darkness is fading away, and the true light is already shining.

The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that an antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because lies don't come from truth.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.

Even now, little children, abide in him. Then, when he appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from him in shame when he comes.

Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.

No one who remains in union with him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

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.

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.

This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in his presence.

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

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

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

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

This is how we know that we abide in him and he in us: he has given us his Spirit.

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.

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.

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

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.

And if we know that he listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask him for.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one.

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.