It is of what has been in existence from the Beginning, of what we have heard, of what we have seen with our eyes, of what we watched reverently and touched with our hands--it is about the Word who is the Life that we are now writing.

And we are writing all this to you that our joy may be complete.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.'

If we say that we have communion with him, and yet continue to live in the Darkness, we lie, and are not living the Truth.

But, if our lives are lived in the Light, as God himself is in the Light, we have communion with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we say that there is no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth has no place in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we are making God a liar, and his Message has no place in us.

but, whenever a man lays his Message to heart, in that man the love of God has indeed reached its perfection. By this we know that we are in union with God--

I write, Fathers, to you, because you have learned to know him who has been from the Beginning. I write, Young Men, to you, because you are strong, and God's Message is always in your hearts, and you have conquered the Evil One.

My Children, these are the last days. You were told that an Anti-Christ was coming; and many Anti-Christ's have already arisen. By that we know that these are the last days.

In writing thus to you, I have in mind those who are trying to mislead you.

But you--you still retain in your hears that consecration which you received from the Christ, and are not in need of any one to teach you; but, since his consecration of you teaches you about everything, and since it is a real consecration, and no lie, then, as it has taught you, maintain your union with him.

Think what love the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'Children of God'; as indeed we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it has not learned to know him.

Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.

By this the Children of God are distinguished from the Children of the Devil--No one who lives unrighteously comes from God, and especially the man who does not love his Brother.

For these are the Tidings that we heard from the first--that we are to love one another.

By that we shall know that we are on the side of the Truth; and we shall satisfy ourselves in God's sight,

and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we are laying his commands to heart, and are doing what is pleasing in his sight.

Moreover, our eyes have seen--and we are testifying to the fact--that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

It is through this that love has attained its perfection in us, so that we may have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because what Christ is that we also are in this world.

For to love God is to lay his commands to heart; and his commands are not burdensome,

that of the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood--and these three are at one.

We realize, too, that the Son of God has come among us, and has given us the discernment to know the True God; and we are in union with the True God by our union with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the True God and he is Immortal Life.