1 Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ (the Word of God that came in flesh, true God from true God), is born of (the living) God: and everyone that loves the Father who sent forth the Son, also loves the Son who came forth from Him;

2 By this do we know that we love the children of God, for when we love God, we keep His commandment (to abide in Him and are kept in His love and life).

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (to remain in Him): and His commandment is not grievous (because His is not a life that we must bring forth in our own strength, but the life wherein we allow Him to serve us with His life without end).

4 For everyone who is born of God overcomes the death and corruption in the world (because Christ has already made death bow down). And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even the faith we behold in Jesus Christ, His Son.

5 Who is the one that overcomes the death in the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of the living God (without beginning of days or end of life)?

6 This is He that came (the Lord from heaven) by water (baptism, the Spirit bearing witness that this was indeed the true Christ) and (in flesh and) blood (where His passion testified He was truly man), even (the God man) Jesus Christ; (who came) not by water only, but by water and blood (by which He was able to wash away our blood). And it is the Spirit that bears witness (of Him), because the Spirit is truth.

7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: (and their record is faithful and true), and these three are One (God, One Lord, and One Spirit).

8 And there are three that bear witness on the earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one (all testifying to the same truth: that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal Word, the Son of God of the living God, who came from the Father in flesh).

9 If we receive testimony of men, surely the testimony of God is greater: and the witness that God has testified is found in His Son (Jesus Christ).

10 He that believes (that Jesus Christ is) the (eternal) Son of God has the witness (dwelling) in himself: he that does not believe (that it was) God (who testified in flesh) has made Him a liar; because he has not believed the testimony that God gave in the Son (who came from His bosom).

11 And this is the testimony that God has given in the Son, Eternal life, (the same life He got down on one knee and promised from the beginning), and this life is found in the body of His Son at the Father's right hand.

12 He that has the Son has (an endless) life (because he has believed on the testimony God gave in the Son, whereby He dwells in them and they in Him, and the Spirit of the Son in them cries Abba Father, where they partake in the Father's life), and he that does not receive that testimony in himself has no life (for there is no other life).

13 These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God (that He is the Word from the Father's bosom that came down from heaven); so that you may know with absolute certainty that you have eternal life, and so that you may believe on the name of the Son of God (He is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace).

14 And (as His sons) this is the confidence that we have in Him, that all He has in Himself is ours, and so if we ask, He hears us:

15 And knowing that He hears us (and has given us everything that our hearts have ever desired), we can be certain that whatever we ask, we have received the thing that we truly desire of Him.

16 If any man sees his brother overtaken in a fault that is not unto (them perishing in the second) death, he can ask, and God will restore to life those taken in a fault that is not unto (the second) death. There is a way that can exist in the heart of a man that denies and rejects (the testimony of) God (in Jesus Christ) for his own way, that is, the iniquity that perishes in (the second) death, and I do not say that you can pray for it.

17 All iniquity (which refuses to call on the name of the Lord but seeks to preserve one's own life) is death: but there are offenses that do not cause one to perish in (the second) death.

18 We know that whosoever is born of God (from the Word of eternal life) no longer labors to establish and preserve his own life; but (his flesh goes to rest in the certainty of the life and bodily immortality he sees in Christ), he that is begotten of God (allows Him to) keep himself (abiding in that life), and that wicked cannot touch him.

19 We know that we are (the sons) of God (who look to Him alone for the life our hearts truly desire), and the whole world lies (in corruption through lust, to bring forth their own lives) under the sway of the wicked one.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us (all the treasures of wisdom and) understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ (who is true God from true God). This (Jesus) is the true God and eternal life (by which we may have fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ).