1 John 1:5-2:2

Living Bible

⁵ This is the message God has given us to pass on to you: that God is Light and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ So if we say we are his friends but go on living in spiritual darkness and sin, we are lying. ⁷ But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ does, then we have wonderful fellowship and joy with each other, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him,^[a] he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are lying and calling God a liar, for he says we have sinned.

2 My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. ² He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins,^[b] and not only ours but all the world’s.