2:1 My little ones in the faith, I write these things to you so you might not fail, but if anyone does, we have an advocate on our behalf to the Father: Jesus the Anointed, the Just.

2:2 And he is the full payment for our failures, and not only for ours, but also for the whole world.

2:3 And this is how we can be sure we have known him: if we always keep his commands.

2:4 Anyone who says “I have known him” but doesn’t keep his commands is a liar.

2:5 But if anyone always keeps his Word, the love of God has truly been perfected in them. This is how we know we belong to him:

2:6 whoever says they remain in him must keep pace with him.

2:7 Loved ones, I am not giving you a new command but an old one you’ve had from the beginning: the Word you heard.

2:8 Yet in a way I really am giving you a new command, verified by both him and you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already appearing.

2:9 Anyone who says they are in the light, but hates others, is still in darkness.

2:10 But anyone who loves others remains in the light and there is no trap waiting for them.

2:11 Yet anyone who hates others is in darkness and keeping in step with it; they don’t realize where they are going because the darkness has blinded them.

2:12 I write to you, little ones, because you have been forgiven of your failures by means of his Name.

2:13 I write to you, parents, because you have known the One from the beginning.

2:14 I write to you, young ones, because you have conquered the evil one.I write to you, students, because you have known the Father.I write to you, parents, because you have known the One from the beginning.I write to you, young ones, because you are strong, and the Word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

2:15 Do not love the world and all that goes with it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them.

2:16 For everything in the world— its appeal to the flesh and the eyes, all its pretense— is not from the Father but from the world.

2:17 And the world and its desire is passing away, but the one doing God’s will lasts till the end.

2:18 Little ones, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that an impostor Anointed is coming, now also many such fakes have come, which is how we know it’s the last hour.

2:19 And these fakes came from among us! But if they had really been one of us, they would have stayed, so their leaving proves they were never one of us at all.

2:20 You all have an anointing from the Holy One and are aware of all this.

2:21 I write to you, not to acquaint you with the truth but because you already know it, for no lie comes from it.

2:22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Anointed? Such a person is the Impostor Anointed who denies both the Father and the Son.

2:23 Everyone who denies the Son also denies the Father, but everyone who declares allegiance to the Son has the Father as well.

2:24 Let that which you have heard from the beginning remain in you; if it does, you will also remain in the Son and the Father.

2:25 This is what he promised us: eternal life.

2:26 I write these things to you about the ones who are deceiving you.

2:27 The anointing you received from him remains in you and you really don’t need a teacher, but just as his anointing teaches you everything true, remain in him.

2:28 So remain in him, little ones, so that whenever he appears we will be bold and unashamed in his presence.

2:29 If you know that he is just, then you also know that whoever does justice is his child.