If you know that he is righteous, you also know ¹  that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered ²  by him.

And everyone who has this hope focused ¹  on him purifies ²  himself, just as Jesus ³  is pure). ⁴ 

Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness ¹  is righteous, just as Jesus ²  is righteous.

And by this ¹  we will know that we are of the truth and will convince ²  our conscience ³  in his presence, ⁴ 

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know ¹  him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one ²  is the true God and eternal life.

If anyone says ¹  “I love God” and yet ²  hates his fellow Christian, ³  he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian ⁴  whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ⁵ 

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.

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him ¹  and in you, because ²  the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ³ 

I am writing to you, fathers, that ¹  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that ²  you have conquered the evil one. ³ 

Everyone who has been fathered ¹  by God does not practice sin, ²  because ³  God’s ⁴  seed ⁵  resides in him, and thus ⁶  he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.

Now ¹  this is his commandment: ²  that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave ³  us the commandment.

And the person who keeps his commandments resides ¹  in God, ²  and God ³  in him. Now by this ⁴  we know that God ⁵  resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking ¹  in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing ²  the truth.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, ¹  forgiving ²  us our sins and cleansing ³  us from all unrighteousness.

I have not written to you that ¹  you do not know the truth, but that ²  you do know it, and that ³  no lie is of the truth.

Everyone who resides ¹  in him does not sin; ²  everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

Everyone who hates his fellow Christian ¹  is a murderer, ²  and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing ³  in him.

and ¹  whatever we ask we receive from him, because ²  we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him.

No one has seen God at any time. ¹  If we love one another, God resides ²  in us, and his love is perfected in us. ³ 

And this is the confidence that we have before him: that ¹  whenever ²  we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.