So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.

So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies.

Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony.