| This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. | This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. |
| So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. | If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. |
| But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. | But if we walk 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. |
| But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. | If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. |
| He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. | He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. |
| Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. | Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. |
| For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. | For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. |
| And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. | And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. |
| Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. | No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. |
| So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. | Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. |
| But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. | But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. |
| And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. | And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. |
| See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. | See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. |
| Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. | Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. |
| Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. | Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. |
| But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. | Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. |
| This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. | For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. |
| We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. | By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. |
| If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? | But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? |
| Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. | Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. |
| Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. | Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. |
| Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. | Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. |
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