That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we did behold, and our hands did handle, concerning the Word of the Life --

But whoever obeys His Message, in him love for God has in very deed reached perfection. By this we can know that we are in Him.

He who says that he is living in him, will do as he did.

and he who is hating his brother, in the darkness he is, and in the darkness he doth walk, and he hath not known whither he doth go, because the darkness did blind his eyes.

I did write to you, fathers, because ye have known him who is from the beginning; I did write to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God in you doth remain, and ye have overcome the evil.

They went out from us [seeming at first to be Christians], but they were not really of us [because they were not truly born again and spiritually transformed]; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out [teaching false doctrine], so that it would be clearly shown that none of them are of us.

I did not write to you because ye have not known the truth, but because ye have known it, and because no lie is of the truth.

Ye, then, that which ye heard from the beginning, in you let it remain; if in you may remain that which from the beginning ye did hear, ye also in the Son and in the Father shall remain,

and this is the promise that He did promise us -- the life the age-during.

These things I did write to you concerning those leading you astray;

and you, the anointing that ye did receive from him, in you it doth remain, and ye have no need that any one may teach you, but as the same anointing doth teach you concerning all, and is true, and is not a lie, and even as was taught you, ye shall remain in him.

See ye what love the Father hath given to us, that children of God we may be called; because of this the world doth not know us, because it did not know Him;

because this is the message that ye did hear from the beginning, that we may love one another,

not as Cain -- of the evil one he was, and he did slay his brother, and wherefore did he slay him? because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.

As for us, we know that we have already passed out of death into Life--because we love our brother men. He who is destitute of love continues dead.

in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down;

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

and this is His command, that we may believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and may love one another, even as He did give command to us,

he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.

in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;

Our love attains perfection through our having perfect confidence about the day of judgment, because here in this world we are living as He did.

Every one who is believing that Jesus is the Christ, of God he hath been begotten, and every one who is loving Him who did beget, doth love also him who is begotten of Him:

because every one who is begotten of God doth overcome the world, and this is the victory that did overcome the world -- our faith;

This one is he who did come through water and blood -- Jesus the Christ, not in the water only, but in the water and the blood; and the Spirit it is that is testifying, because the Spirit is the truth,

and this is the testimony, that life age-during did God give to us, and this -- the life -- is in His Son;

These things I did write to you who are believing in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that life ye have age-during, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.