This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments.

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:

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that an antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

This is how God's children and the Devil's children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

This is how we have come to know love: the Messiah gave his life for us. We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers.

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?

This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in his presence.

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.

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

This is how God's love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him.

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

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.

This is how we know that we love God's children: we love God and keep his commandments.