5. But if someone obeys God’s teaching, then in that person God’s love has truly reached its goal. This is how we can be sure we are living in God:
6. Whoever says that he lives in God must live as Jesus lived.
7. My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you but an old command you have had from the beginning. It is the teaching you have already heard.
8. But also I am writing a new command to you, and you can see its truth in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9. Anyone who says, “I am in the light,” but hates a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.
10. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light and will not cause anyone to stumble in his faith.
11. But whoever hates a brother or sister is in darkness, lives in darkness, and does not know where to go, because the darkness has made that person blind.
12. I write to you, dear children,because your sins are forgiven through Christ.