4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins,E,y and there is no sin in him.z 6 Everyone who remains in himaa does not sin;F,ab everyone who sinsG has not seen him or known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who commitsH sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of Godac was revealedad for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 9 Everyone who has been born of Godae does not sin,I because his seedaf remains in him; he is not able to sin,J because he has been born of God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.ag

LOVE IN ACTION

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain,ah who was of the evil oneai and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hatesaj you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.ak 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sisteral is a murderer,am and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his lifean for us.ao We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.ap 17 If anyone has this world’s goodsaq and sees a fellow believerK in needar but withholds compassionas from him—how does God’s love reside in him?at 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.au

19 This is how we will know that we belong to the trutha and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.b

21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandsc and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the named of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him,e and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in usf is from the Spiritg he has given us.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spiritsh to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshi is from God,j 3 but every spirit that does not confess JesusA is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,k which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in youl is greater than the one who is in the world.m 5 They are from the world.n Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;o anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.p

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of Godq and knows God.