4 Anyone who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sinning is the same as living against God’s law.
5 You know that Christ came to take away people’s sins. There is no sin in Christ.
6 So whoever lives in Christ does not continue to sin. If they continue to sin, they have never really understood Christ and have never known him.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you into the wrong way. Christ always did what was right. So to be good like Christ, you must do what is right.
8 The devil has been sinning since the beginning. Anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this: to destroy the devil’s work.
9 Those who are God’s children do not continue to sin, because the new life God gave them stays in them. They cannot keep sinning, because they have become children of God.
10 So we can see who God’s children are and who the devil’s children are. These are the ones who are not God’s children: those who don’t do what is right and those who do not love their brothers and sisters in God’s family.