15. Don’t love this evil world or the things in it. If you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
16. This is all there is in the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. But none of these comes from the Father. They come from the world.
17. The world is passing away, and all the things that people want in the world are passing away. But whoever does what God wants will live forever.
18. My dear children, the end is near! You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming. And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is near.
19. These enemies were in our group, but they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.
20. You have the gift that the Holy One gave you. So you all know the truth.
21. Do you think I am writing this letter because you don’t know the truth? No, I am writing because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.
22. So who is the liar? It is the one who says Jesus is not the Messiah. Whoever says that is the enemy of Christ—the one who does not believe in the Father or in his Son.
23. Whoever does not believe in the Son does not have the Father, but whoever accepts the Son has the Father too.
24. Be sure that you continue to follow the teaching you heard from the beginning. If you do that, you will always be in the Son and in the Father.
25. And this is what the Son promised us—eternal life.