Christ Our Advocate
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin,
1we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2
2He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but
3also for the sins of the whole world.
3
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we
4keep his commandments.
4
Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments
5is a liar, and
6the truth is not in him,
5
but whoever
7keeps his word, in him truly
8the love of God is perfected.
9By this we may know that we are in him:
6
whoever says he
10abides in him
11ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
The New Commandment
7 Beloved, I am writing you
12no new commandment, but
13an old commandment
14that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8
At the same time, it is
15a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because
16the darkness is passing away and
17the true light is already shining.
9
Whoever says he is in the light and
18hates his brother is still in darkness.
10
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no
19cause for stumbling.
11
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and
20walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.