If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in us.

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.

But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God's love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one.

I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.

Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

See what kind of love the Father has given us: We are called God's children and that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him, either.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure.

No one who remains in union with him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing.

No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life present in him.

Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a brother in need and yet withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God be present in him?

The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah has become human and remains so is from God.

Dear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

This is how we know that we abide in him and he in us: he has given us his Spirit.

We have seen for ourselves and can testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

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.

This is how love has been perfected among us: we will have confidence on the day of judgment because, during our time in this world, we are just like him.

There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.

because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater, because it is the testimony of God and because he has testified about his Son.

The person who believes in the Son of God believes this testimony personally. The person who does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony that he has given about his Son.

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son.

The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

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.