⁴ “Hear, O Israel: ^(A)The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a] 5} You ^(B)shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And ^(C)these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ^7 (D)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^8 (E)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (F)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Christ Our Advocate

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ^(A)we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ^2 (B)He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but ^(C)also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we ^(D)keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments ^(E)is a liar, and ^(F)the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever ^(G)keeps his word, in him truly ^(H)the love of God is perfected. ^(I)By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he ^(J)abides in him ^(K)ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

⁷ Beloved, I am writing you ^(L)no new commandment, but ^(M)an old commandment ^(N)that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸ At the same time, it is ^(O)a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because^{[a] (P)}the darkness is passing away and ^(Q)the true light is already shining. ⁹ Whoever says he is in the light and ^(R)hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him^[b] there is no ^(S)cause for stumbling.