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¹ My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, one who is righteous.[xr] ² It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's.[xr]

³ This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments. ⁴ The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.[xr] ⁵ But whoever continually keeps his word is the kind of person in whom God's love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with him:[xr] ⁶ The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.[xr]

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.[xr] ⁸ On the other hand, I am writing to you a new commandment that is true in him and in you. For the darkness is fading away, and the true light is already shining.[xr] ⁹ The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.[xr] ¹⁰ The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.[xr] ¹¹ But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.[xr]

¹² I am writing to you, little children,[xr] because your sins have been forgivenon account of his name. ¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,[xr] because you have known the one whohas existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one. ¹⁴ I have written to you, little children,[xr] because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one. ¹⁵ Stop loving[fn] the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him.[xr] ¹⁶ For everything that is in the world - the desire for fleshly gratification,[fn] the desire for possessions,[fn] and worldly arrogance - is not from the Father but is from the world.[xr] ¹⁷ And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.[xr]

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that an antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.[xr] ¹⁹ They left us, but they were not part of us, for if they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. They simply made it clear that none of them was really part of us.[xr]

²⁰ You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.[fn][xr] ²¹ I have not written 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 a liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ?[fn] The person who denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist.[xr] ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.[xr] ²⁴ What you have heard from the beginning must abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.[xr] ²⁵ The message that he himself declared to us is eternal life.[xr] ²⁶ I have written[fn] to you about those who are trying to deceive you.[xr] ²⁷ The anointing you received from him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. Instead, because his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not a lie, abide in him, as he taught you to do.[fn][xr]

²⁸ Even now, little children, abide in him. Then, when he appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from him in shame at his coming.[xr] ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born from God.[fn][xr]