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

If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

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:

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.

Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him.

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

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

See what kind of love the Father has given us: We are called God's children and that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him, either.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, 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 distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how love has been perfected among us: we will have confidence on the day of judgment because, during our time in this world, we are just like him.

For this demonstrates our love for God: We keep his commandments, and his commandments are not difficult,

For there are three witnesses in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.

And there are three witnesses on earth the Spirit, the water, and the blood and these three are one.

Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that do not lead to death.

We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one.

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.