3 If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him.
4 If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us.
5 But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him.
6 If we say we live in God, we must live the way Jesus lived.
7 My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you. It is the same command you have had since the beginning. This command is the teaching you have already heard.
8 But what I write is also a new command. It is a true one; you can see its truth in Jesus and in yourselves. The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9 Someone might say, “I am in the light,” but if they hate any of their brothers or sisters in God’s family, they are still in the darkness.