If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these [things] to you in order that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous [one],

and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.

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

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message which you have heard.

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

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,

because everything [that is] in the world--the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions--is not from the Father, but is from the world.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But [they went out], in order that it might be shown that all of them are not of us.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because every lie is not of the truth.

Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father [either]; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

And [as for] you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all [things], and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

And now, little children, remain in him, so that whenever he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God, and we are! Because of this the world does not know us: because it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever he is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.

Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and [he is] not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother.

not as Cain, who was of the evil one and violently murdered his brother. And {for what reason} did he violently murder him? Because his deeds were evil and the [deeds] of his brother [were] righteous.

Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed over from death to life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him.

But whoever has the world's material possessions and observes his brother {in need} and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God reside in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Dear friends, if our heart does not condemn [us], we have confidence before God,

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits [to determine] if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, [of] which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

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

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son [to be the] propitiation for our sins.

[There] is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear includes punishment, and the one who is afraid has not been perfected in love.

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen is not able to love God whom he has not seen.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

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

(The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.)

The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not [leading] to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not [leading] to death. ([There] is a sin [leading] to death; I do not say that he should ask about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, and [there] is a sin not [leading] to death.)

We know that everyone who is fathered by God does not sin, but the one fathered by God, he protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.