1 John, 2

1. My little children, I write to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just One.

2. He is the sacrificial victim for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

3. How can we know that we know him? If we fulfill his commands.

4. If you say, "I know him," but do not fulfill his commands, you are a liar and the truth is not in you.

5. But if you keep his word, God's love is made complete in you. This is how we know that we are in him:

6. he who claims to live in him must live as he lived.

7. My dear friends, I am not writing you a new commandment, but reminding you of an old one, one you had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

8. But, in a way, I give it as a new commandment for it was indeed new in Jesus Christ and must be so in you as well, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines.

9. If you claim to be in the light but hate your brother, you are still in darkness.

10. If you love your brothers and sisters, you remain in the light and nothing in you will make you fall.

11. But if you hate your brother you are in the dark and walk in darkness without knowing where you go, for the darkness has blinded you.

12. My dear children, I write this to you: you have already received the forgiveness of your sins through the Name of Jesus.

13. Fathers, I write this to you: you know him who is from the beginning. Young men, I write this to you: you have overcome the Evil One. My dear children, I write to you because you already know the Father.

14. Fathers, I write to you because you know him who is from the beginning. Young men, I write to you because you are strong and the Word of God lives in you who have indeed overcome the Evil One.

15. Do not love the world or what is in it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16. For everything in the world - the craving of the flesh, the greed of eyes and people boasting of their superiority - all this belongs to the world, not to the Father.

17. The world passes away with all its craving but those who do the will of God remain for ever.

18. My dear children, it is the last hour. You were told that an antichrist would come; but several antichrists have already come, by which we know that it is now the last hour.

19. They went out from us though they did not really belong to us. Had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. So it became clear that not all of us were really ours.

20. But you have the anointing from the Holy One, so that all of you have true wisdom.

21. I write to you, not because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you already know it, and lies have nothing in common with the truth.

22. Who is the liar? The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is an antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son.

23. The one who denies the Son is without the Father, and those who acknowledge the Son also have the Father.

24. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you, too, will remain in the Son and in the Father.

25. And this is the promise he himself gave us: eternal life.

26. I write this to you thinking of those who try to lead you astray.

27. You received from him an anointing, and it remains in you, so you do not need someone to teach you. His anointing teaches you all things, it speaks the truth and does not lie to you; so remain in him, and keep what he has taught you.

28. And now, my children, live in him, so that when he appears in his glory, we may be confident and not ashamed before him when he comes.

29. You know that he is the Just One: know then that anyone living justly is born of God.