- 1
- My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
- But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--
- 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.
- 3
- We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
- 4
- The man who says, "I know him,"
- but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
- 5
- But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.
- This is how we know we are in him:
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- Whoever claims to live in him must walk 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 you,
- because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
- 9
- Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
- 10
- Whoever loves his brother lives in the light,
- and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
- 11
- But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness
- and walks around in the darkness;
- he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
- 12
- I write to you, dear children,
- because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
- 13
- I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
- I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
- I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
- 14
- I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
- I write to you, young men, because you are strong,
- and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
- 15
- Do not love the world or anything in the world.
- If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- 16
- For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man,
- the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--
- comes not from the Father but from the world.
- 17
- The world and its desires pass away,
- but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
- 18
- Dear children, this is the last hour;
- and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,
- even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
- 19
- They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.
- For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us;
- but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
- 20
- But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
- 21
- I do not write to you because you do not know the truth,
- but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
- 22
- Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ.
- Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son.
- 23
- No one who denies the Son has the Father;
- whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
- 24
- See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.
- If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
- 25
- And this is what he promised us--even eternal life.
- 26
- I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
- 27
- As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you,
- and you do not need anyone to teach you.
- But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real,
- not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him.
- 28
- And now, dear children, continue in him,
- so that when he appears we may be confident
- and unashamed before him at his coming.
- 29
- If you know that he is righteous,
- you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.