And this is the message that we have heard from Him and now announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

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

If we claim "We have not sinned," we are making Him a liar, and His message is not in our hearts.

By this we can be sure that we know Him -- if we practice obedience to His commands.

Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not practice obedience to His commands is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this we can be sure that we are in union with Him:

Whoever claims, "I am always in union with Him," ought to live as He lived.

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

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God's message is always in your hearts, and you have conquered the evil one.

The anointing of the Spirit which you received still remains in your hearts, and so you have no need that anyone should teach you. But just as that anointing of His teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, and as it has taught you to do so, you must continue to live in union with Him.

And now, dear children, I repeat, you must continue to live in union with Him, so that if He is unveiled, we may have unshaken confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame when He comes.

If you know that He is upright, you must know that everyone who practices uprightness is born of Him.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in him tries to make himself as pure as He is.

You know that He appeared to take our sins away, and that there is no sin in Him.

No one who continues to live in union with Him practices sin. No one who practices sin has ever seen Him or come to know Him.

No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, because the God-given life-principle continues to live in him, and so he cannot practice sinning, because he is born of God.

We must not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's upright.

Anyone who keeps on hating his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer can have eternal life remaining in him.

But if anyone has the world's means of supporting life and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?

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

Whoever practices obedience to His commands remains in union with Him and He in union with him; and in this way we know that He remains in union with us, by the Spirit that He has given us.

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.

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,

By the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit we can be sure that we remain in union with Him and He in union with us.

Whoever owns that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in union with him and he in union with God.

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.

This is the command that we get from Him, that whoever loves God loves his brother too.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his own heart. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask for anything that is in accordance with His will, He will listen to us.

And if we know that He listens to us in whatever we ask Him for, we know that we get from Him the things that we have asked Him for.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask and God will grant him life; yea, He will grant it to any who do not commit a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

We know that no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, but the Son who was born of God continues to keep him, and the evil one cannot touch him.