1. My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.
2. He is God’s way of dealing with our sins, not only ours but the sins of the whole world.
3. This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
4. The one who claims, "I know him," while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.
5. But the love of God is truly perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know we are in him.
6. The one who claims to remain in him ought to live in the same way as he lived.
7. Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard.
8. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines.