Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we may be called children of God. Because of this the world does not know you, because it did not know him.

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:

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

My dearly loved ones, I am not writing to you about a new commandment, but about an old one. [It is the one] you had learned about from the beginning. [Note: This is the commandment to love one another (3:1: II John 5) which Jesus had taught his disciples during His earthly ministry. See Mark 12:31]. This old commandment is the word [of God] which you heard [previously].