This is the message that we heard from him and announce to you: God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.

but whoever obeys his message really has the love of God in perfection in his heart. This is the way we can be sure that we are in union with him;

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God's message is always in your hearts, and you have been victorious over the evil one.

and the world with its cravings is passing away, but whoever does God's will will endure forever.

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.

Whoever commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared??o undo the devil's work.

No one who is a child of God commits sin, for God's nature remains in his heart, and he cannot sin, because he is a child of God.

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.

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?

From that we can be sure that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

if they condemn us for anything, for God is greater than our consciences, and he knows all.

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.

You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

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.

You are children of God, dear children, and you have been victorious over these men, for he who is in our hearts is greater than he who is 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.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

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

God's love for us has been revealed in this way??hat God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him.

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.

Dear friends, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we love one another, God keeps in union with us and love for him attains perfection in our hearts.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God keeps in union with him and he with God.

So we know and believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love keeps in union with God, and God with him.

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.

This is the command that we get from him, that whoever loves God must love his brother also.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves those who are his children.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: it is by loving God and obeying his commands.

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

for every child of God is victorious over the world. Our faith is the victory that has triumphed over the world.

For who is there that is victorious over the world except the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; for the value of God's testimony lies in this, that he has testified to his Son.

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.

And that testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and that this life is found in his Son.

I have written this so that you who believe in the Son of God may know that you have eternal life.

We know that no child of God commits sin, but the fact that he is God's child protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

We know that we are children of God, while the whole world is under the power of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us power to recognize him who is true; and we are in union with him who is true, through his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.