2 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocates with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrificeC,t for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.u

GOD’S COMMANDS

3 This is how we knowv that we know him: if we keep his commands.w 4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word,x truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:y 6 The one who says he remains in himz should walk just as he walked.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new commandaa but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the wordab you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing awayac and the true lightad is already shining.ae 9 The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sisteraf is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother or sisterag remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.D 11 But the one who hates his brother or sisterah is in the darkness, walks in the darkness,ai and doesn’t know where he’s going,aj because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

REASONS FOR WRITING

12 I am writing to you, little children,

since your sins have been forgiven

on account of his name.ak

13 I am writing to you, fathers,

because you have come to know

the one who is from the beginning.al

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have conquered the evil one.am

14 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 wordan remains in you,

and you have conquered the evil one.

A WARNING ABOUT THE WORLD

15 Do not love the worldao or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,ap the lust of the eyes,aq and the pridear in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away,a but the one who does the will of Godb remains forever.c

THE LAST HOUR

18 Children, it is the last hour.d And as you have heard that antichriste is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. 19 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.

20 But you have an anointingf from the Holy One,g and all of you know the truth.A 21 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. 22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?h This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father;i he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.j

REMAINING WITH GOD

24 What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Sonk and in the Father.l 25 And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.m

26 I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, 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 thingsn and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you,B remain in him.o

GOD’S CHILDREN

28 So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appearsp we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.q 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him.r s 3 See what great loveA 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. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed.t We know that when he appears,B we will be like himu because we will see him as he is.v 3 And everyone who has this hopew in him purifies himself just as he is pure.x

4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins,C,y and there is no sin in him.z 6 Everyone who remains in himaa does not sin;D,ab everyone who sinsE has not seen him or known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who commitsF sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of Godac was revealedad for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 9 Everyone who has been born of Godae does not sin,G because his seedaf remains in him; he is not able to sin,H because he has been born of God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.ag

LOVE IN ACTION

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain,ah who was of the evil oneai and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hatesaj you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.ak 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sisteral is a murderer,am and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his lifean for us.ao We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.ap 17 If anyone has this world’s goodsaq and sees a fellow believerI in needar but withholds compassionas from him—how does God’s love reside in him?at 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.au

19 This is how we will know that we belong to the trutha and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.b

21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandsc and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the named of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him,e and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in usf is from the Spiritg he has given us.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

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

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshi is from God,j 3 but every spirit that does not confess JesusA is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,k which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in youl is greater than the one who is in the world.m 5 They are from the world.n Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;o anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.p

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of Godq and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among usB in this way: God sentr his one and only Sons into the world so that we might livet through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved usu and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrificeC,v for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.w 12 No one has ever seen God.x If we love one another, God remains inD us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in himy and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.z 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Sonaa as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confessesab that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,ac because as he is, so also are we in this world.ad 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,ae because fear involves punishment.E So the one who fears is not complete in love.af 19 We loveF because he first loved us.ag 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,ah he is a liar.ai For the person who does not love his brother or sisteraj whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.G 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.