1This letter is about the Word of Life which existed from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our very own eyes and gazed upon, and which our hands have touched. ⁰

2This Life was revealed to us; we saw it and give evidence about it. We are telling you about the one who is Eternal Life, who was with the Father, and who was revealed to us.

3What we have seen and heard we are now explaining to you, so that you may also share in this friendship ¹together with us—this friendship that is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4We're writing to tell you about this in order to make our happiness complete.

5This is the message we received from him and that we declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him at all. ²

6If we claim to share this friendship with him and yet go on living ³in darkness, we're lying, and not living in the truth.

7But if we are living in the light, as he is in the light, then we share in this friendship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, makes us clean from every sin.

8If we claim to be sinless we only fool ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9But if we confess our sins, he is trustworthy and right so that he can forgive us our sins and make us clean from all that is not right in us.

10If we claim we haven't sinned, we turn him into a liar, and his word is not in us.