Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

³ We know^(A) that we have come to know him^(B) if we keep his commands.^{(C) 4} Whoever says, “I know him,”^(D) but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.^{(E) 5} But if anyone obeys his word,^(F) love for God^[a] is truly made complete in them.^(G) This is how we know^(H) we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.^(I)

⁷ Dear friends,^(J) I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.^(K) This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command;^(L) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing^(M) and the true light^(N) is already shining.^(O)

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister^[b](P) is still in the darkness.^{(Q) 10} Anyone who loves their brother and sister^[c] lives in the light,^(R) and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.^{(S) 11} But anyone who hates a brother or sister^(T) is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.^(U) They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.^(V)

Reasons for Writing

On Not Loving the World

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world.^(AH) If anyone loves the world, love for the Father^[d] is not in them.^{(AI) 16} For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,^(AJ) the lust of the eyes,^(AK) and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away,^(AL) but whoever does the will of God^(AM) lives forever.

Warnings Against Denying the Son

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour;^(AN) and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,^(AO) even now many antichrists have come.^(AP) This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us,^(AQ) but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.^(AR)

²⁰ But you have an anointing^(AS) from the Holy One,^(AT) and all of you know the truth.^{[e](AU) 21} I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it^(AV) and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.^{(AW) 23} No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.^(AX)

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning^(AY) remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.^{(AZ) 25} And this is what he promised us—eternal life.^(BA)

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.^{(BB) 27} As for you, the anointing^(BC) you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things^(BD) and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.^(BE)