If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him.

For everything that is in the world the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance is not from the Father but is from the world.

They left us, but they were not part of us, for if they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. Their leaving made it clear that none of them was really part of us.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because lies don't come from truth.

The anointing you received from God abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you this. Instead, because God's anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not a lie, abide in him, as he taught you to do.

Even now, little children, abide in him. Then, when he appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from him in shame when he comes.

See what kind of love the Father has given us: We are called God's children and that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him, either.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.

Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead.

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?

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.

But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

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.

The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

For this demonstrates our love for God: We keep his commandments, and his commandments are not difficult,

Who overcomes the world? Is it not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This man, Jesus the Messiah, is the one who came by water and blood not with water only, but with water and with blood. The Spirit is the one who verifies this, because the Spirit is the truth.

The person who believes in the Son of God believes this testimony personally. The person who does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony that he has given about his Son.

The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that do not lead to death.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.