We are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete.

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.

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:

I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the One who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
God’s word remains in you,
and you have had victory over the evil one.

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

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.

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.

This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,

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.

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.

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.

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.

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

For there are three that testify:

the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.