what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

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

Fellowship with God

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.

If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.

But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.

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 conquered the evil one.

The Last Hour

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

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.

And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.

God’s Children

So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him.

Love in Action

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,

unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

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

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.

In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.

And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

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.