that life was revealed,
and we have seen it
and we testify and declare to you
the eternal life that was with the Father
and was revealed to us—

what we have seen and heard
we also declare to you,
so that you may have fellowship along with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete.

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

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

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.

And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.

>

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.

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

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,

Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.

The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us.

This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

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

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.

And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.

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

In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him.

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.

because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

For there are three that testify:

If we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that He has given about His Son.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.)

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.