whoever says, "I am always in union with him" must live just as he lived.

[As for] you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

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.

For the message you have heard from the beginning is this: We must love one another.

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.

You must not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

besides, 'tis a commandment we have receiv'd from him, that he who would love God, must love his brother also.

Every person who believes that Jesus is the Christ [i.e., God's specially chosen one] has been [spiritually] conceived [and eventually born] by God. And everyone who [continually] loves God, who did the conceiving, also [must continually] love the person whom God has [spiritually] conceived.