Chronological Plan

¹What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—

²and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us—

³what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

⁴These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

⁵This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

⁶If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

⁷but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

²and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

³By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

⁴The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

⁵but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

⁶the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

⁷Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

⁸On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

⁹The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now.

¹⁰The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling.

¹¹But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

¹⁴I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

¹⁷The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us.

²⁰But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

²¹I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

²²Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

²³Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴As for you, see that what you heard from the beginning remains in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

²⁶These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him.

²⁸Now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not draw back from Him in shame at His coming.

²⁹If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been born of Him.

¹See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.

²Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

³And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

⁴Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

⁵You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

⁶No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him.

⁷Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;

⁸the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

⁹No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God.

¹⁰By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

¹¹For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we are to love one another;

¹²not as Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.

¹³Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.

¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.

¹⁶We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.

¹⁷But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him?

¹⁸Little children, let’s not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

¹⁹We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will set our heart at ease before Him,

²⁰that if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things.

²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

²²and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

²³This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

²⁴The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.

⁴You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

⁵They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

⁶We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.

¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit.

¹⁴We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

¹⁶We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

¹⁷By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world.

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

¹⁹We love, because He first loved us.

²⁰If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

²¹And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child born of Him.

²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments.

³For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

⁴For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

⁵Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

⁷For there are three that testify:

⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

⁹If we receive the testimony of people, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.

¹⁰The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.

¹¹And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

¹²The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

¹³These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother or sister committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will, for him, give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I am not saying that he should ask about that.

¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

¹⁸We know that no one who has been born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Little children, guard yourselves from idols.