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1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's[b] seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Love One Another

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers,[c] that the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

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

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

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

22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,[d] and God[e] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

[2a] Or when it appears

[9b] Greek his

[13c] Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 14, 16

[24d] Greek him

[24e] Greek he

[1] Verse one continues the condescending claim that 'Whoever denies the son does not have the father' from previous. 'that we…' The claim here is that non-Christians do not know God. However, and of course, there are countless non-Christians in the world today whose lives revolve around serving God. This may come as a surprise to many Christians who are simply unaware of it.

We first find this doctrine in the gospel of John 14:6 “No one comes to the father except through me”. This, then, is the great conceit of Christianity and one of it's greatest errors.

It does not take much effort to find countless people in the old testament who had a direct, personal relationship with the creator, and who had no knowledge of Jesus whatsoever. Back in the times of the tanach, no one needed Jesus to have a relationship with God – and if they did not need him back then they certainly do not need him today.

The Christian may claim that these old testament figures knew about Jesus or were waiting for him, etc. yet this is in fact a claim without substantiation of any kind– it cannot be substantiated because it is not stated anywhere in the tanach.

What would be pushing the envelope to the absurd would be to say that the countless Jews and Noachides today who devote their lives to serving God in the manner of their forefathers, are secretly worshipping Jesus (in the manner of their forefather) but are simply unaware of it.

[5] The statement is that (he) appeared in order to take away sin. This is a result of Paul's radical make-over of the messianic profile. Meaning, in the tanach there is a profile of who the messiah would be, and what the messiah would do, and Jesus did not match the profile of the messiah from the tanach. So at this point you would have to either gove up believe in Jesus, or you have to come up with an alternative 'job description' – and that is what Paul does. he radically changes the entire profile of what the messiah is supposed to to as essentially coming to die in order to take on the sins of those who would believe in him.

This is based on a fascinating distortion of Isaiah 59, where Paul distorts the text of the tanach in order to support his revised job description of the messiah.

• Isaiah 59:20 ““And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.”'
• Romans 11:26-27 “…“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.””

Paul rewrites the description of the messiah's mission as the removal of sin versus someone who saves those who become righteous by turning away from sin. This of course is against Paul's doctrine, who states that we are personally incapable of turning away from sin and therefore Paul states that God has to do it for us by sending his son to die in our place. However, the fact remains that Paul has arrived at this conclusion only by changing and rewriting the words of Isaiah.

Paul adds here 'in him there is no sin,'

• 1 Kings 8:46, Ecc 7:20, etc. all state that if you are a human being, you are prone to sin.
• Job 15:14, 25:4, etc. state specifically 'anyone born of a woman,' not just those born of a man.

The scriptures seem very clear that you cannot simply make the claim that a particular human being has no sin.

Jesus didn't keep the whole law anyways – for example the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Or to honor his father and mother (ex. Matthew 12:47-48). The reason why this can't be abrogated into 'the church' or a spiritual family is because this was never an acceptable way to fulfil the commandments. John 2 is the same; 'woman,' etc.

Not only did Jesus not have any sin according to Paul, but whoever abides in him also does not sin! Those who sin, in fact, are not even considered christian; exacerbated by v.8-9 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil,” and “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning,” (for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God).

Note that it is not credible to focus on 'abiding in' or 'practising' as a focus; in 1 John 5:18 states very clearly “We know that no one who has been born of God sins;” (NASB).

This also clashes against Hebrews 2:14 which states “…(he came) that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” So, did he or didn't he? Do Christians sin or not? The writing here is contradictory and unclear.

v. 14 – the example of Jesus is that he died for 'everyone'. But in v.14 is the trope that Christians only have to 'love' other Christians – are Christians mandated then to love everyone, or only Christians as stated here?

v.15 – Then, it is acceptable to hate non-Christians (ex. Jews).

But this then is questioned by v.16 – Jesus again did not lay down his life (in that it was taken from him) and he was not given a choice. But in any case he did not do so for the believers but for whosoever. Therefore, v.15 applies to any Christian who hates a Jew, an atheist, etc.

Jesus in fact stated many times 'do not tell anyone I am the messiah,' or 'do not tell anyone of these miracles,' etc. and when he went into jerusalem on the holidays, when the romans doubled or tripled his guard, he even told his followers to go and buy swords; and when the guards came his disciples even fought against them (chopped off an ear, etc). In fact then it seems as if even Jesus himself expected to fulfil the messianic prophecies and did not expect to be killed. On the cross, Jesus does not call out 'Mission accomplished!' he says, 'My god, my god, why have you abandoned me?'

v.22 states explicitly “because we keep his commandments”. What does this mean, when it says we keep his commandments? Which commandments is it referring to? The 613 commandments? Or the commandments of Jesus – which, were given in order to refer to both the Noachide laws or the 613 by extension? Surely the author of John felt that it was self-explanatory, and that his readers would understand. Looking then at v.20 and v.21 the subject is clearly established as God, and not Jesus (by name) and therefore it refers to the commandments given at Sinai to Israel!

v.23 is problematic because there is absolutely nothing in the hebrew scriptures which speaks about believing in a messiah (or anything). There is not even a commandment to believe in God(!!) So to say 'as he has commanded us' becomes a thorn – where was this commandment given?