Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God,

Dear friends, if God so loved us, then ¹  we also ought to love one another. ² 

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, ¹  but test ²  the spirits ³  to determine ⁴  if they are from God, because many false prophets ⁵  have gone out into the world.

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. ¹  The old commandment is the word that you have already ²  heard.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be ¹  has not yet been revealed. We ²  know that ³  whenever ⁴  it ⁵  is revealed ⁶  we will be like him, because ⁷  we will see him just as he is. ⁸ 

Dear friends, let us love one another, because ¹  love is from God, and everyone who loves ²  has been fathered ³  by God and knows God.