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.

Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not practice obedience to His commands is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

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:

Whoever claims, "I am always in union with Him," ought to live as He lived.

Whoever claims to be in the light, and yet continues to hate his brother is still in darkness.

Whoever continues to love his brother is always in the light, and he is no hindrance to others.

But whoever continues to hate his brother is in darkness and is living in darkness, and he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

and the world is passing away and with it the evil longings it incites, but whoever perseveres in doing God's will lives on forever.

No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever owns the Son has the Father too.

No one who continues to live in union with Him practices sin. No one who practices sin has ever seen Him or come to know Him.

Dear children, avoid letting anyone lead you astray. Whoever practices doing right is upright, just as He is upright.

Whoever practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has practiced sin from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared, to undo the devil's works.

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.

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.

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.

Whoever does not love has never come to know God by experience, because God is love.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we practice loving one another, God remains in union with us, and our love for Him attains perfection in our hearts,

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.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet habitually hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

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

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.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.