1 John 2:1-11

New International Version - UK

2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Love and hatred for fellow believers

³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God^[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister^[b] is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister^[c] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.