001:001 That which was from the beginning, which we have listened to,
which we have seen with our own eyes, and our own hands
have handled concerning the Word of Life—

001:002 the Life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness,
and we declare unto you the Life of the Ages which was with
the Father and was manifested to us—

001:003 that which we have seen and listened to we now announce to you also, in order that you also may have fellowship in it with us, and this fellowship with us is fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

001:004 And we write these things in order that our joy may be made complete.

001:005 This is the Message which we have heard from the Lord Jesus
and now deliver to you—God is Light, and in Him there
is no darkness.

001:006 If, while we are living in darkness, we profess to have
fellowship with Him, we speak falsely and are not adhering
to the truth.

001:007 But if we live in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son,
cleanses us from all sin.

001:008 If we claim to be already free from sin, we lead ourselves
astray and the truth has no place in our hearts.

001:009 If we confess our sins, He is so faithful and just that He
forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

001:010 If we deny that we have sinned, we make Him a liar,
and His Message has no place in our hearts.

002:001 Dear children, I write thus to you in order that you may not sin.
If any one sins, we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ
the righteous;

002:002 and He is an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

002:003 And by this we may know that we know Him—if we obey His commands.

002:004 He who professes to know Him, and yet does not obey His commands, is a liar, and the truth has no place in his heart.

002:005 But whoever obeys His Message, in him love for God has in very deed reached perfection. By this we can know that we are in Him.

002:006 The man who professes to be continuing in Him is himself also bound to live as He lived.

002:007 My dearly-loved friends, it is no new command that I am
now giving you, but an old command which you have had from
the very beginning. By the old command I mean the teaching
which you have already received.

002:008 And yet I *am* giving you a new command, for such it
really is, so far as both He and you are concerned:
because the darkness is now passing away and the light,
the true light, is already beginning to shine.

002:009 Any one who professes to be in the light and yet hates his
brother man is still in darkness.

002:010 He who loves his brother man continues in the light, and his
life puts no stumbling-block in the way of others.

002:011 But he who hates his brother man is in darkness and is walking in darkness; and he does not know where he is going— because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

002:012 I am writing to you, dear children, because for His sake your sins are forgiven you.

002:013 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has
existed from the very beginning. I am writing to you,
young men, because you have overcome the Evil one.
I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

002:014 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has
existed from the very beginning. I have written to you,
young men, because you are strong and God's Message still has
a place in your hearts, and you have overcome the Evil one.

002:015 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.
If any one loves the world, there is no love in his heart
for the Father.

002:016 For the things in the world—the cravings of the earthly nature,
the cravings of the eyes, the show and pride of life—
they all come, not from the Father, but from the world.

002:017 And the world, with its cravings, is passing away, but he who does God's will continues for ever.

002:018 Dear children, the last hour has come; and as you once heard
that there was to be an anti-Christ, so even now many
anti-Christs have appeared. By this we may know that the last
hour has come.

002:019 They have gone forth from our midst, but they did not really
belong to us; for had they belonged to us, they would have
remained with us. But they left us that it might be manifest
that professed believers do not all belong to us.

002:020 As for you, you have an anointing from the holy One and have perfect knowledge.

002:021 I have written to you, not because you are ignorant of the truth,
but because you know it, and you know that nothing false
comes from the truth.

002:022 Who is a liar compared with him who denies that Jesus
is the Christ? He who disowns the Father and the Son
is the anti-Christ.

002:023 No one who disowns the Son has the Father. He who acknowledges the Son has also the Father.

002:024 As for you, let the teaching which you have received from the very beginning continue in your hearts. If that teaching does continue in your hearts, you also will continue to be in union with the Son and with the Father.

002:025 And this is the promise which He Himself has given us—
the Life of the Ages.

002:026 I have thus written to you concerning those who are
leading you astray.

002:027 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains within you, and there is no need for any one to teach you. But since His anointing gives you instruction in all things— and is true and is no falsehood—you are continuing in union with Him even as it has taught you to do.

002:028 And now, dear children, continue in union with Him; so that, if He re-appears, we may have perfect confidence, and may not shrink away in shame from His presence at His Coming.

002:029 Since you know that He is righteous, be assured also that the man who habitually acts righteously is a child of His.

003:001 See what marvellous love the Father has bestowed upon us—
that we should be called God's children: and that is what we are.
For this reason the world does not recognize us—because it
has not known Him.

003:002 Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we are
to be in the future has not yet been fully revealed.
We know that if Christ reappears we shall be like Him,
because we shall see Him as He is.

003:003 And every man who has this hope fixed on Him, purifies himself
so as to be as pure as He is.

003:004 Every one who is guilty of sin is also guilty of violating Law;
for sin is the violation of Law.

003:005 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins;
and in Him there is no sin.

003:006 No one who continues in union with Him lives in sin:
no one who lives in sin has seen Him or knows Him.

003:007 Dear children, let no one lead you astray. The man who acts
righteously is righteous, just as He is righteous.

003:008 He who is habitually guilty of sin is a child of the Devil, because the Devil has been a sinner from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the Devil.

003:009 No one who is a child of God is habitually guilty of sin.
A God-given germ of life remains in him, and he cannot
habitually sin—because he is a child of God.

003:010 By this we can distinguish God's children and the Devil's children:
no one who fails to act righteously is a child of God,
nor he who does not love his brother man.

003:011 For this is the Message you have heard from the beginning— that we are to love one another.

003:012 We are not to resemble Cain, who was a child of the Evil one and killed his own brother. And why did he kill him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's actions righteous.

003:013 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

003:014 As for us, we know that we have already passed out of death into Life—because we love our brother men. He who is destitute of love continues dead.

003:015 Every one who hates his brother man is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has the Life of the Ages continuing in him.

003:016 We know what love is—through Christ's having laid down His
life on our behalf; and in the same way we ought to lay
down our lives for our brother men.

003:017 But if any one has this world's wealth and sees that his
brother man is in need, and yet hardens his heart against him—
how can such a one continue to love God?

003:018 Dear children, let us not love in words only nor with the lips,
but in deed and in truth.

003:019 And in this way we shall come to know that we are loyal to
the truth, and shall satisfy our consciences in His presence

003:020 in whatever matters our hearts condemn us—because God is
greater than our hearts and knows everything.

003:021 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have perfect
confidence towards God;

003:022 and whatever we ask for we obtain from Him, because we obey His
commands and do the things which are pleasing in His sight.

003:023 And this is His command—that we are to believe in
His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has
commanded us to do.

003:024 The man who obeys His commands continues in union with God,
and God continues in union with him; and through His Spirit whom
He has given us we can know that He continues in union with us.

004:001 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but put the spirits
to the test to see whether they are from God; for many false
teachers have gone out into the world.

004:002 The test by which you may recognize the Spirit of God is
that every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has
come as man is from God,

004:003 and that no spirit is from God which does not acknowledge
this about Jesus. Such is the spirit of the anti-Christ;
of whose coming you have heard, and it is already in the world.

004:004 As for you, dear children, you are God's children, and have
successfully resisted them; for greater is He who is in you
than he who is in the world.

004:005 They are the world's children, and so their language
is that of the world, and the world listens to them.
We are God's children.

004:006 The man who is beginning to know God listens to us, but he who is not a child of God does not listen to us. By this test we can distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

004:007 Dear friends, let us love one another; for love has its origin in God, and every one who loves has become a child of God and is beginning to know God.

004:008 He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God;
because God is love.

004:009 God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His
only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.

004:010 This is love indeed—we did not love God, but He loved us
and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

004:011 Dear friends, if God has so loved us, we also ought to
love one another.

004:012 No one has ever yet seen God. If we love one another,
God continues in union with us, and His love in all its
perfection is in our hearts.

004:013 We can know that we are continuing in union with Him and that He
is continuing in union with us, by the fact that He has given
us a portion of His Spirit.

004:014 And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent
the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

004:015 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God—God continues
in union with him, and he continues in union with God.

004:016 And, as for us, we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it. God is love, and he who continues to love continues in union with God, and God continues in union with him.

004:017 Our love will be manifested in all its perfection by our
having complete confidence on the day of the Judgement;
because just what He is, we also are in the world.

004:018 Love has in it no element of fear; but perfect love drives away fear,
because fear involves pain, and if a man gives way to fear,
there is something imperfect in his love.

004:019 We love because God first loved us.

004:020 If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

004:021 And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.

005:001 Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God; and every one who loves the Father loves also Him who is the Father's Child.

005:002 The fact that we love God Himself, and obey His commands,
is a proof that we love God's children.

005:003 Love for God means obedience to His commands; and His commands
are not irksome.

005:004 For every child of God overcomes the world; and the victorious
principle which has overcome the world is our faith.

005:005 Who but the man that believes that Jesus is the Son of God
overcomes the world?

005:006 Jesus Christ is He who came with water and blood; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit who gives testimony—because the Spirit is the Truth.

005:007 For there are three that give testimony—the Spirit, the water, and the blood;

005:008 and there is complete agreement between these three.

005:009 If we accept the testimony of men, God's testimony is greater: for God's testimony consists of the things which He has testified about His Son.

005:010 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in his own heart: he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, in that he has refused to accept the testimony which God has given about His Son.

005:011 And that testimony is to the effect that God has given us
the Life of the Ages, and that this Life is in His Son.

005:012 He who has the Son has the Life: he who has not the Son of God
has not the Life.

005:013 I write all this to you in order that you who believe in the Son of God may know for certain that you already have the Life of the Ages.

005:014 And we have an assured confidence that whenever we ask anything
in accordance with His will, He listens to us.

005:015 And since we know that He listens to us, then whatever we ask,
we know that we have the things which we have asked from Him.

005:016 If any one sees a brother man committing a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and God shall give him life— for those who do not sin unto death. There is such a thing as sin unto death; for that I do not bid him make request.

005:017 Any kind of wrongdoing is sin; but there is sin which is not unto death.

005:018 We know that no one who is a child of God lives in sin, but He who is God's Child keeps him, and the Evil one cannot touch him.

005:019 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil one.

005:020 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we know the true One, and are in union with the true One—that is, we are in union with His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the Life of the Ages.

005:021 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.

*****

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