Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

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

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:

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.

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

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

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And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works.

This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,

This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.

If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?

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

We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

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.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

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

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.

And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

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

For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,

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

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.