These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.'

But, if our lives are lived in the Light, as God himself is in the Light, we have communion with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we confess our sins, God may be trusted, in his righteousness, to forgive us our sins and purify us from all wickedness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we are making God a liar, and his Message has no place in us.

but, whenever a man lays his Message to heart, in that man the love of God has indeed reached its perfection. By this we know that we are in union with God--

He who professes to maintain union with God is himself bound to live as Christ lived.

I write, Fathers, to you, because you have learned to know him who has been from the Beginning. I write, Young Men, to you, because you are strong, and God's Message is always in your hearts, and you have conquered the Evil One.

And the world, and all that it gratifies, is passing away, but he who does God's will remains for ever.

Think what love the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'Children of God'; as indeed we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it has not learned to know him.

Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.

He who lives sinfully belongs to the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the first. It was for this that the Son of God appeared, that he might undo the Devil's work.

No one who has received the new Life from God lives sinfully, because the very nature of God dwells within him; and he cannot live in sin, because he has received the new Life from God.

By this the Children of God are distinguished from the Children of the Devil--No one who lives unrighteously comes from God, and especially the man who does not love his Brother.

We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? It was because his life was bad while his brother's was good.

But, if any one has worldly possessions, and yet looks on while his Brother is in want, and steels his heart against him, how can it be said that the love of God is within him?

By that we shall know that we are on the side of the Truth; and we shall satisfy ourselves in God's sight,

that if our conscience condemns us, yet God is greater than our conscience and knows everything.

Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, then we approach God with confidence,

Dear friends, do not trust every inspiration, but test each inspiration, to see whether it proceeds from God; because many false Prophets have gone out into the world.

This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God--All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God;

while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.

You, my Children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such men as these, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

We come from God. He who knows God listens to us; the man who does not come from God does not listen to us. By that we may know the true inspiration from the false.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because Love comes from God; and every one who loves has received the new Life from God and knows God.

He who does not love has not learned to know God; for God is Love.

The love of God was revealed to us by his sending his only Son into the world, that we might find Life through him.

His love is seen in this--not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us thus, we, surely, ought to love one another.

No human eyes have ever seen God, yet, if we love one another, God remains in union with us, and his love attains its perfection in us.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God--God remains in union with that man, and he with God.

And, moreover, we have learned to know, and have accepted as a fact, the love which God has for us. God is Love; and he who lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

We love, because God first loved us.

If a man says 'I love God,' and yet hates his Brother, he is a liar; for the man who does not love his Brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

Indeed, we have this Command from God-- 'He who loves God must also love his Brother.'

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has received the new Life from God; and every one who loves him who gave that Life loves him who has received it.

By this we know that we love God's Children--when we love God and carry out his commands.

For to love God is to lay his commands to heart; and his commands are not burdensome,

because all that has received the new Life from God conquers the world. And this is the power that has conquered the world--our faith!

Who is he that conquers the world but the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We accept the testimony of men, but God's testimony is still stronger; and there is the testimony of God--the fact that he has already borne testimony about his Son.

He who believes in the Son of God has that testimony within him. He who does not believe God has made God a liar, by refusing to believe in that testimony which he has borne about his Son.

And that testimony is that God gave us Immortal Life, and that this Life is in his Son.

He who finds the Son finds Life; he who does not find the Son of God does not find Life.

I write this to you, that you may realize that you have found Immortal Life--you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.

We know that no one who has received the new Life from God lives in sin. No, he who has received the new Life from God keeps the thought of God in his heart, and then the Evil One does not touch him.

We realize that we come from God, while all the world is under the influence of the Evil One.

We realize, too, that the Son of God has come among us, and has given us the discernment to know the True God; and we are in union with the True God by our union with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the True God and he is Immortal Life.

My Children, guard yourselves against false ideas of God.