⁷ Dear friends,^(A) I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.^(B) This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command;^(C) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing^(D) and the true light^(E) is already shining.^(F)

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister^[a](G) is still in the darkness.^(H)