2:1
My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright.
2:2
He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.
2:3
In this way we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
2:4
Whoever says, 'I know him' without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him.
2:5
But anyone who does keep his word, in such a one God's love truly reaches its perfection. This is the proof that we are in God.
2:6
Whoever claims to remain in him must act as he acted.
2:7
My dear friends, this is not a new commandment I am writing for you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message you have heard.
2:8
Yet in another way, I am writing a new commandment for you -- and this is true for you, just as much as for him -- for darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
2:9
Whoever claims to be in light but hates his brother is still in darkness.
2:10
Anyone who loves his brother remains in light and there is in him nothing to make him fall away.
2:11
But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and is walking about in darkness not knowing where he is going, because darkness has blinded him.
2:12
I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven through his name.
2:13
I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the Evil One.
2:14
I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, parents, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong, and God's word remains in you, and you have overcome the Evil One.
2:15
Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him,
2:16
because everything there is in the world -- disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession -- is not from the Father but is from the world.
2:17
And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever.
2:18
Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour.
2:19
They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us.
2:20
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge.
2:21
I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth.
2:22
Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son.
2:23
Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.
2:24
Let what you heard in the beginning remain in you; as long as what you heard in the beginning remains in you, you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
2:25
And the promise he made you himself is eternal life.
2:26
So much have I written to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
2:27
But as for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; since the anointing he gave you teaches you everything, and since it is true, not false, remain in him just as he has taught you.
2:28
Therefore remain in him now, children, so that when he appears we may be fearless, and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
2:29
If you know that he is upright you must recognise that everyone whose life is upright is a child of his.
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