<p>2:5 <em>But who keeps his word, in him truly has the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him</em>- As noted on :3, the singular &quot;word&quot; is parallel with plural &quot;commandments&quot;, which I suggest is the plural of majesty referring to the great commandment, to love one another as the Lord loved us. If we keep the 'word' of loving our brother, then God's love has been perfected in us, it has achieved its end result- that we should love as He loved us. And this is our confidence that we are in Him. If self-examination reveals that we do harbour hatred in our heart for our brethren- we really need to urgently do something about it.</p>