Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.

If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn"t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:

The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.

Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.

So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

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.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.

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

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.

unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

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

If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?

and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight.

The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us.

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

(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.)

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

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.

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.