My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.

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Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.

Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.

This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

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

We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

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

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.)

The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.