and that life has been unveiled to us, and we have seen it and now testify to it and we now announce it to you, yea, the eternal life that was with the Father and has been unveiled to us.

I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ;

And this is the message that we have heard from Him and now announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone ever sins, we have One who pleads our case with the Father, Jesus Christ, One who is righteous.

By this we can be sure that we know Him -- if we practice obedience to His commands.

but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this we can be sure that we are in union with Him:

Dearly beloved, I am not writing you a new command, but an old one that you have had from the beginning. That old command is the message that you have heard.

Yet it is a new command that I am writing you; it is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Stop loving the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, there is no love for the Father in his heart,

because everything that is in the world, the things that our lower nature and eyes are longing for, and the proud pretensions of life, do not come from the Father, but from the world;

Little children, it is the last hour, just as you have heard that Antichrist is Coming, and already many Antichrists have appeared; so we may be sure that it is the last hour.

They have gone out from our own number, but they did not really belong to us; for if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to show that none of those who went out really belonged to us.

Who is the notorious liar, if it is not the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the real Antichrist, the man who disowns the Father and the Son.

And the very thing that He Himself has promised us is eternal life.

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.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

You know that He appeared to take our sins away, and that there is no sin in Him.

it is so because the message that you have heard from the beginning is this: We should love one another.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Whoever does not continue to love continues still in death.

Anyone who keeps on hating his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer can have eternal life remaining in him.

We know what love is from the fact that He laid down His life for us; and so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

In this way we shall know by experience that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

His command is this, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and practice loving one another, just as He commanded us to do.

Whoever practices obedience to His commands remains in union with Him and He in union with him; and in this way we know that He remains in union with us, by the Spirit that He has given us.

In this way you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spiritual utterance which owns that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

and no spiritual utterance which disowns Jesus can come from God; it is the utterance of Antichrist. You have heard that it is coming, and right now it is already in the world.

We are children of God. Whoever knows God by experience listens to us; whoever is not a child of God does not listen to us. This is the way to distinguish a true spiritual utterance from one that is false.

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

In this way is seen the true love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

By the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit we can be sure that we remain in union with Him and He in union with us.

We have seen and now testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Whoever owns that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in union with him and he in union with God.

So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

This is the command that we get from Him, that whoever loves God loves his brother too.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

for every child of God continues to conquer the world. Our faith is the victory that has conquered the world.

Now who is it that continues to conquer the world, if it is not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Because there are three that testify to it, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three agree.

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; because this is the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his own heart. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

And this testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is given through union with His Son.

I have written this to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, so that you may know that you already have eternal life.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask for anything that is in accordance with His will, He will listen to us.

And if we know that He listens to us in whatever we ask Him for, we know that we get from Him the things that we have asked Him for.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask and God will grant him life; yea, He will grant it to any who do not commit a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

Any wrongdoing is sin; and there are sins that do not lead to death.

We know that no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, but the Son who was born of God continues to keep him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

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

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us insight to recognize the True One; and we are in union with the True One through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.