John exhorts believers to love one another on the basis of Christ's love for us. Sacrificial love is Christian love.

The children of God and the children of the devil are manifested in one way: their propensity to love. Children of God practice righteousness and love the brethren; children of the devil do not practice righteousness and hate the brethren.

Children of God cannot live in habitual sin because they are born of God.

In this passage, John drives home the point that it is impossible to live in habitual sin and lawlessness (rebellion against God's law) and claim to be a child of God. The two are not compatible.

John exhorts the children of God to abide in Christ as they look forward to His coming with great anticipation and not shame. This is the encouragement for living holy and practicing righteousness.

John urges his readers to let the truth of God in Christ abide in them. This is the antidote to apostasy.

John warns his readers of another mark of the antichrists that have gone out into the world: they deny that Jesus is the Christ.

John shows two more ways to identify antichrists: they are not anointed (Spirit-filled/led) and they do not know the truth.

John identifies the problem that needs addressing, primarily that antichrists (those who are against Christ and oppose Christ) have gone out into the world. The saints must beware of their deceptive and false teaching.

The world is passing away along with its desires, but those who do the will of God abide forever.