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.

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.

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.

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.

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.