We love because he loved us first.

And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.

If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence,

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

Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.

Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

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

We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him.

By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.

By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.

This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life –

What we have seen and heard we announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ).

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.