If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.

If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn"t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.

The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.

So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.

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.

Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

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?

Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.

Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before God

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

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.

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

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.

There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.

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

Jesus Christ—He is the One who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.)

The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.