Fellowship with God

5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet continue to walk in the darkness, our words and our lives are a lie. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, ‘we have no sin,’ then we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is just and may be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all wrongdoing. 10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make God a liar, and his Word is not in us.

2 My children, I am writing to you to keep you from sinning. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the righteous. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but the sins of the whole world. 3 It is by keeping God’s commands that we can be sure we know him. 4 Whoever says ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commands, is a liar. The truth has no place in them. 5 But the person who keeps God’s word, in them the love of God has indeed reached its perfection. This is how we can be sure we are in him: 6 whoever claims to live in him should live just as Jesus did.