And this is the message that we have heard from Him and now announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this 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 conquered the evil one.

and the world is passing away and with it the evil longings it incites, but whoever perseveres in doing God's will lives on forever.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

Whoever practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has practiced sin from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared, to undo the devil's works.

No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, because the God-given life-principle continues to live in him, and so he cannot practice sinning, because he is born of God.

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.

But if anyone has the world's means of supporting life and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?

In this way we shall know by experience that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

because if our consciences do condemn us, God is greater than our consciences, and He knows everything.

Dearly beloved, if our consciences do not condemn us, we come with perfect confidence to God,

Dearly beloved, stop believing every so-called spiritual utterance, but keep testing them to see whether they come from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

In this way you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spiritual utterance which owns that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

and no spiritual utterance which disowns Jesus can come from God; it is the utterance of Antichrist. You have heard that it is coming, and right now it is already in the world.

You are children of God, dear children, and you have conquered these men, because He who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world.

We are children of God. Whoever knows God by experience listens to us; whoever is not a child of God does not listen to us. This is the way to distinguish a true spiritual utterance from one that is false.

Dearly beloved, let us practice loving one another, because love originates with God, and everyone who practices loving is a child of God and knows God by experience.

Whoever does not love has never come to know God by experience, because God is love.

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

In this way is seen the true love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dearly beloved, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another too.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we practice loving one another, God remains in union with us, and our love for Him attains perfection in our hearts,

Whoever owns that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in union with him and he in union with God.

So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet habitually 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 loves his brother too.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

For love to God means this, to practice obedience to His commands, and His commands are not burdensome,

for every child of God continues to conquer the world. Our faith is the victory that has conquered the world.

Now who is it that continues to conquer the world, if it is not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; because this is the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his own heart. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

And this testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is given through union with His Son.

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

And if we know that He listens to us in whatever we ask Him for, we know that we get from Him the things that we have asked Him for.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask and God will grant him life; yea, He will grant it to any who do not commit a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

We know that no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, but the Son who was born of God continues to keep him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

We know that we are children of God, and that 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 insight to recognize the True One; and we are in union with the True One through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.