My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

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:

The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.

The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one.

I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one.

And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.

Who is a liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? The person who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.

I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure.

Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience.

No one who remains in union with him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

Little children, don't let anyone deceive you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, just as the Messiah is righteous.

The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing.

No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

This is how God's children and the Devil's children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead.

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

The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah has become human and remains so is from God.

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

Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Dear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God abides in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and he abides in God.

We have come to know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love, and the person who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

And this is the commandment that we have from him: the person who loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.

because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Who overcomes the world? Is it not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This man, Jesus the Messiah, is the one who came by water and blood not with water only, but with water and with blood. The Spirit is the one who verifies this, because the Spirit is the truth.

The person who believes in the Son of God believes this testimony personally. The person who does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony that he has given about his Son.

The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

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.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, his Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.