My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Reasons for Writing

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Warnings Against Denying the Son

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

God’s Children and Sin

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.