1:1 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--
1:2 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--
1:3 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.
1:4 And we write these things in order that our joy may be made complete.
1:5 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.
1:6 If, while we are living in darkness, we profess to have fellowship with Him, we speak falsely and are not adhering to the truth.
1:7 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.
1:8 If we claim to be already free from sin, we lead ourselves astray and the truth has no place in our hearts.
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is so faithful and just that He forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
1:10 If we deny that we have sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Message has no place in our hearts.
2:1 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;
2:2 and He is an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
2:3 And by this we may know that we know Him--if we obey His commands.
2:4 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.
2:5 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.
2:6 The man who professes to be continuing in Him is himself also bound to live as He lived.
2:7 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.
2:8 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.
2:9 Any one who professes to be in the light and yet hates his brother man is still in darkness.
2:10 He who loves his brother man continues in the light, and his life puts no stumbling-block in the way of others.
2:11 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.
2:12 I am writing to you, dear children, because for His sake your sins are forgiven you.
2:13 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.
2:14 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.
2:15 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.
2:16 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.
2:17 And the world, with its cravings, is passing away, but he who does God's will continues for ever.
2:18 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.
2:19 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.
2:20 As for you, you have an anointing from the holy One and have perfect knowledge.
2:21 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.
2:22 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.
2:23 No one who disowns the Son has the Father. He who acknowledges the Son has also the Father.
2:24 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.
2:25 And this is the promise which He Himself has given us--the Life of the Ages.
2:26 I have thus written to you concerning those who are leading you astray.
2:27 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.
2:28 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.
2:29 Since you know that He is righteous, be assured also that the man who habitually acts righteously is a child of His.
3:1 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.
3:2 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.
3:3 And every man who has this hope fixed on Him, purifies himself so as to be as pure as He is.
3:4 Every one who is guilty of sin is also guilty of violating Law; for sin is the violation of Law.
3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
3:6 No one who continues in union with Him lives in sin: no one who lives in sin has seen Him or knows Him.
3:7 Dear children, let no one lead you astray. The man who acts righteously is righteous, just as He is righteous.
3:8 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.
3:9 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.
3:10 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.
3:11 For this is the Message you have heard from the beginning--that we are to love one another.
3:12 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.
3:13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.
3:14 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.
3:15 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.
3:16 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.
3:17 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?
3:18 Dear children, let us not love in words only nor with the lips, but in deed and in truth.
3:19 And in this way we shall come to know that we are loyal to the truth, and shall satisfy our consciences in His presence
3:20 in whatever matters our hearts condemn us--because God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
3:21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have perfect confidence towards God;
3:22 and whatever we ask for we obtain from Him, because we obey His commands and do the things which are pleasing in His sight.
3:23 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.
3:24 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.
4:1 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.
4:2 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,
4:3 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.
4:4 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.
4:5 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.
4:6 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.
4:7 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.
4:8 He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.
4:9 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.
4:10 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.
4:11 Dear friends, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
4:12 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.
4:13 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.
4:14 And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
4:15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God--God continues in union with him, and he continues in union with God.
4:16 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.
4:17 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.
4:18 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.
4:19 We love because God first loved us.
4:20 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.
4:21 And the command which we have from Him is that he who loves God must love his brother man also.
5:1 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.
5:2 The fact that we love God Himself, and obey His commands, is a proof that we love God's children.
5:3 Love for God means obedience to His commands; and His commands are not irksome.
5:4 For every child of God overcomes the world; and the victorious principle which has overcome the world is our faith.
5:5 Who but the man that believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world?
5:6 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.
5:7 For there are three that give testimony-- the Spirit, the water, and the blood;
5:8 and there is complete agreement between these three.
5:9 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.
5:10 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.
5:11 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.
5:12 He who has the Son has the Life: he who has not the Son of God has not the Life.
5:13 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.
5:14 And we have an assured confidence that whenever we ask anything in accordance with His will, He listens to us.
5:15 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.
5:16 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.
5:17 Any kind of wrongdoing is sin; but there is sin which is not unto death.
5:18 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.
5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil one.
5:20 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.
5:21 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.