Our message concerns that Word, who is life; what he was from the first, what we have heard about him, what our own eyes have seen of him; what it was that met our gaze, and the touch of our hands.✻

Yes, life dawned; and it is as eye-witnesses that we give you news of that life, that eternal life, which ever abode with the Father and has dawned, now, on us.

This message about what we have seen and heard we pass on to you, so that you too may share in our fellowship. What is it, this fellowship of ours? Fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

And if we are writing to you now, it is so that joy may be yours in full measure.

What, then, is this message we have heard from him, and are passing on to you? That God is light, and no darkness can find any place in him;

if we claim fellowship with him, when all the while we live and move in darkness, it is a lie; our whole life is an untruth.

God dwells in light; if we too live and move in light, there is fellowship between us, and the blood of his Son Jesus Christ washes us clean from all sin.

Sin is with us; if we deny that, we are cheating ourselves; it means that truth does not dwell in us.

No, it is when we confess our sins that he forgives us our sins, ever true to his word, ever dealing right with us, and all our wrong-doing is purged away.

If we deny that we have sinned, it means that we are treating him as a liar; it means that his word does not dwell in our hearts.