Now this ¹  is the promise that he ²  himself made to ³  us: eternal life. ⁴ 

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

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

We have come to know love by this: ¹  that Jesus ²  laid down ³  his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

(My little children, ¹  I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. ² ) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate ³  with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, ⁴ 

Now ¹  by this we know that we have come to know God: ²  if we keep his commandments.

And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains ¹  forever.

Everyone who practices sin ¹  also practices lawlessness; ²  indeed, ³  sin is lawlessness.

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

By this ¹  we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.

Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that ¹  Jesus is the Son of God?

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.

Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ ¹ ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.

This is what we proclaim to you: ¹  what was from the beginning, ²  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 –

and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce ¹  to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us). ² 

Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists ¹  have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour.

(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that ¹  we should be called God’s children – and indeed ²  we are! ³  For this reason ⁴  the world does not know us: because it did not know him. ⁵ 

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