Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.

The one who says "I have come to know God" and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.

We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God,

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

Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood -- not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.