I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ;

If we claim "We are already free from sin," we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in our hearts.

And He is Himself the atoning sacrifice for our sins; and not for ours alone, but also for the whole world.

I am writing to you, dear children, because for His sake your sins have been forgiven.

Stop loving the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, there is no love for the Father in his heart,

because everything that is in the world, the things that our lower nature and eyes are longing for, and the proud pretensions of life, do not come from the Father, but from the world;

They have gone out from our own number, but they did not really belong to us; for if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to show that none of those who went out really belonged to us.

We know what love is from the fact that He laid down His life for us; and so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

and we obtain from Him whatever we ask for, because we practice obedience to His commands and do what pleases Him.

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.

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,

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.

There is no fear in love, and perfect love drives out fear, because fear pertains to punishment, and no one who is subject to fear has attained perfection in love.