When you read through I John, you constantly see what seems to be contradictions.
He exhorts them not to sin, then says that they cannot sin. He commands them to love their brother, then tells them that those who walk in light (believers that he is writing to) do love their brother. He tells them that they need no man to teach them because they know the truth, yet the whole book is teaching them. He tells them that he is not writing them a new commandment, but in the next verse he says that he is writing them a new commandment.
How can we reconcile all these things? We will begin to examine them here.