Motivations for writing
12 Little children, I'm writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus' name.
13
Parents, I'm writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I'm writing to you because you have conquered the evil one.
14
Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I write to you because you are strong, the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.
Warning about the world
15 Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them.
16
Everything that is in the world—the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one's possessions—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17
And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.
Remaining in the truth
18 Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.
19
They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us.
20
But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth.
21
I don't write to you because you don't know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth.
22
Who is the liar? Isn't it the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.