If we say we are joined to him, and are walking still in the dark, our words are false and our acts are untrue:

If we say that we have no sin, we are false to ourselves and there is nothing true in us.

If we say that we have not sinned [refusing to admit acts of sin], we make Him [out to be] a liar [by contradicting Him] and His word is not in us.

The man who says, I have knowledge of him, and does not keep his laws, is false, and there is nothing true in him:

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie [nothing false, no deception] is of the truth.

Who is false but he who says that Jesus is not the Christ? He is the Antichrist who has no belief in the Father or the Son.

As for you, the Spirit which he gave you is still in you, and you have no need of any teacher; but as his Spirit gives you teaching about all things, and is true and not false, so keep your hearts in him, through the teaching which he has given you.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

[But], you people are [followers] of God, little children [i.e., dear ones], and you have overcome them [i.e., these false teachers] because He who is in your lives [i.e., the Holy Spirit, See 3:24] is greater [i.e., more powerful] than he who is in [i.e., dominates] the world [i.e., Satan. See II Cor. 4:4].

These [false teachers] are part of the world, so [naturally] they speak [a message endorsed] by the world and the world listens to them.

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.

If a man says, I have love for God, and has hate for his brother, his words are false: for how is the man who has no love for his brother whom he has seen, able to have love for God whom he has not seen?

He who has faith in the Son of God has the witness in himself: he who has not faith in God makes him false, because he has not faith in the witness which God has given about his Son.

Little children (believers, dear ones), guard yourselves from idols—[false teachings, moral compromises, and anything that would take God’s place in your heart].