
John's First Letter

   {1:1} We declare to you that which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we watched, and our
hands have touched, concerning the Word of life. {1:2} The life was
revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you this
eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us.{1:3}
That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you may also
have fellowship with us. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and
with His Son, Jesus [1>]Christ.[<1] {1:4} We write these things to you
so that your joy may be full.

   {1:5} This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare
to you: that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. {1:6} If we
say that we have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness, we lie and
don't do what is true. {1:7} But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. {1:8} If we say that we
don't sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth isn't in us. {1:9}
If we admit to our sins, He is faithful and with righteous justice
forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. {1:10}
If we claim that we haven't sinned, we call Him a liar, and His word
isn't in us.

   {2:1} My little children, I am writing these things to you so that
you won't sin. If anyone sins, we have an [2>]Intercessor[<2] with the
Father, the righteous Jesus Christ. {2:2} He Himself is the atoning
sacrifice for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of
the whole world. {2:3} This is how we know that we have come to know
Him: if we keep His commandments. {2:4} The one who says, "I have come
to know Him," and doesn't keep His commandments is a liar, and the
truth isn't in him. {2:5} But whoever keeps His word has the
[3>]sincere love[<3] of God truly perfected in him. By this we know
that we are in Him: {2:6} whoever claims to live in Jesus ought to walk
in the same way He walked.

   {2:7} Brothers and sisters, I'm not writing a new commandment to
you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The
old commandment is the word which you have heard. {2:8} Yet, I am
writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you,
because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already
shining. {2:9} Whoever claims to be in the light but hates a brother or
sister, is still in darkness. {2:10} Whoever sincerely loves his
brothers and sisters lives in the light, and there is no cause for
stumbling in him. {2:11} But whoever hates a brother or sister is in
darkness and walks in darkness, and doesn't know where he is going,
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

   {2:12} I write to you, little children, because your sins are
forgiven for His name's sake.

   {2:13} I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is
from the beginning.

   I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

   I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

   {2:14} I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him
who is from the beginning.

   I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the
word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

   {2:15} Don't sincerely love the world or the things in the world. If
anyone sincerely loves the world, the sincere love of the Father isn't
in him. {2:16} For everything that is in the world - the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - isn't the
Father's, but is the world's. {2:17} The world and its lusts are
passing away, but whoever does the will of God stays forever.

   {2:18} Little children, we are in the end times. As you have heard
the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this
we know that we are in the end times. {2:19} They went out from us, but
they didn't belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would
have continued with us. Instead, they went out so that it might be
revealed that none of them belonged to us. {2:20} But you have an
anointing from the Holy One, and you all know the truth. {2:21} I write
to you, not because you don't know the truth, but because you do know
it, and because you know that no lie belongs to the truth. {2:22} Who
is a liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the
Father and the Son is an antichrist. {2:23} Whoever denies the Son
doesn't have the Father either. Whoever acknowledges the Son also has
the Father.

   {2:24} Therefore, let that which you heard from the beginning live
in you. If what you heard from the beginning lives in you, you also
will live in the Son and in the Father. {2:25} This is the promise that
He has promised to us - eternal life.

   {2:26} I have written these things to you about those who are trying
to deceive you. {2:27} As for you, the anointing that you received from
Him lives in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. Yet as
His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and not a lie;
just as it has taught you, you live in Him. {2:28} Now, little
children, live in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence
and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. {2:29} If you know
that He is righteous, then know that everyone who also practices
righteousness is born of Him.

   {3:1} See how great a sincere love the Father has given us, that we
should be called children of God! Because the world didn't know Him, it
doesn't know us. {3:2} Beloved, now we are children of God, and it
hasn't yet appeared what we will be. We know that when He appears we
will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. {3:3} Everyone
who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
{3:4} Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness. Sin is
lawlessness. {3:5} You know that He appeared to take away sins. There
is no sin in Him. {3:6} No one who lives in Him sins. No one who sins
has seen Him or knows Him. {3:7} Little children, don't let anybody
deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as
He is righteous. {3:8} The one who practices sin is the Devil's,
because the [4>]Devil[<4] has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God
appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the
Devil. {3:9} No one who is born of God practices sin, because God's
seed lives in him. He can't continue to sin, because he is born of God.
{3:10} By this the children of God and the children of the Devil are
obvious: anyone who doesn't practice righteousness is not God's, and
neither is anyone who doesn't sincerely love his brother or sister.

   {3:11} For this is the message that you have heard from the
beginning, that we should sincerely love one another. {3:12} Don't be
like Cain, who belonged to the evil one, and killed his brother. Why
did he kill him? Because Cain's deeds were evil, and his brother's were
righteous.

   {3:13} Don't be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates
you. {3:14} We know that we have passed out of death into life, because
we sincerely love our brothers and sisters. Whoever doesn't sincerely
love lives in death. {3:15} Whoever hates his brother or sister is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life living in him.

   {3:16} By this we know God's sincere love, because He laid down His
life for us. So we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers
and sisters. {3:17} If someone has this world's goods, and sees a
brother in need, and closes up his heart of compassion from him, how
does God's sincere love live in him? {3:18} My little children, let's
not sincerely love just in words or in language, but in deed and in
truth. {3:19} This is how we will know that we belong to the truth, and
how we will assure our hearts before Him {3:20} whenever our hearts
condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

   {3:21} Beloved, if our hearts don't condemn us, we have confidence
before God; {3:22} and we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we
keep His commandments and do the things that please Him. {3:23} This is
His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and that we sincerely love one another, just as He commanded us. {3:24}
Whoever keeps His commandments lives in Him, and He lives in that
person. This is how we know that He lives in us: by the Spirit He has
given us.

   {4:1} Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits to
see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone
out into the world. {4:2} This is how you know God's Spirit: every
spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
from God. {4:3} Every spirit that fails to acknowledge Jesus isn't from
God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is
coming, and now it is already in the world. {4:4} You are from God,
little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world. {4:5} They are from the world,
therefore they talk like they are from the world, and the world listens
to them. {4:6} We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.
Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the
spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

   {4:7} Beloved, let us sincerely love one another, for sincere love
is from God, and everyone who sincerely loves is born of God and knows
God. {4:8} The one who doesn't sincerely love doesn't know God, for God
is sincere love. {4:9} The sincere love of God was manifested in us by
this, that God has sent His only born Son into the world so that we
might live through Him. {4:10} In this is sincere love: not that we
sincerely loved God, but that He sincerely loved us and sent his Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins. {4:11} Beloved, if God sincerely
loved us like this, we ought to sincerely love one another, too. {4:12}
No one has ever seen God, but if we sincerely love one another, God
lives in us and His sincere love is made complete in us.

   {4:13} This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us, because
He has given us of His Spirit. {4:14} We have seen and testify that the
Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. {4:15} God lives in
whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, and that person lives
in God. {4:16} We have come to know and have believed the sincere love
which God has for us.

   God is sincere love. One who lives in sincere love lives in God, and
God lives in him. {4:17} Sincere love has been perfected among us in
this: that we may have confident boldness on the judgment day, because
as He is, so are we in this world. {4:18} There is no fear in sincere
love, but perfect, sincere love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment. But whoever fears has not been made perfect in sincere
love. {4:19} We sincerely love, because He first sincerely loved us.
{4:20} If someone says, "I sincerely love God," and hates his brother
or sister, he is a liar. If someone doesn't sincerely love a brother or
sister he has seen, how can he sincerely love God whom he hasn't seen?
{4:21} This commandment we have from Him: that whoever sincerely loves
God must sincerely love his brothers and sisters, too.

   {5:1} Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and
whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. {5:2} This is how
we know that we sincerely love the children of God: by sincerely loving
God and keeping His commandments. {5:3} For this is God's sincere love,
that we keep His commandments. His commandments aren't burdensome,
{5:4} for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the
victory that has overcome the world - our faith. {5:5} Who is the one
who overcomes the world, but one who believes that Jesus is God's Son?
{5:6} This is He who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ; not only
by water, but by water and blood. {5:7} It is the Spirit who testifies,
because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify, {5:8}
the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are in agreement
as one. {5:9} If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater; because this is God's testimony which He has testified about
His Son. {5:10} One who believes in the Son of God has the witness in
himself. One who doesn't believe God has accused Him of being a liar,
because he hasn't believed in the testimony that God has given
concerning His Son. {5:11} This is the witness, that God has given us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. {5:12} Whoever has the Son
has life. Whoever doesn't have God's Son doesn't have life.

   {5:13}  I have written these things to you who believe in the name
of God's Son, so that you may know that you have eternal life. {5:14}
This is the confidence that we have in Him: that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. {5:15} If we know that He hears us
in whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests which we
have asked from Him.

   {5:16} If you see your brother or sister committing a sin not
leading to death, you should ask, and God will, for you, give life to
those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a kind of sin
leading to death. I don't say that you should make requests for this.
{5:17} All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a kind of sin that
doesn't lead to death.

   {5:18} We know that anyone who is born of God doesn't keep sinning,
but He who was born of God keeps him. The wicked one doesn't harm or
even touch him. {5:19} We know that we belong to God, and the whole
world lies in the power of the evil one. {5:20} We know that God's Son
has come, and has given us understanding, so that we might know Him who
is true. We are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is
the true God and eternal life. {5:21} Little children, keep yourselves
from idols.



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Footnotes:
[1] {1:3} "Christ" (Greek) and "Messiah" (Hebrew) both mean "Anointed
One."

[2] {2:1} The Greek word for Counselor (Paraklete) also means
Counselor, Comforter, Helper, Advocate, and Strengthener.

[3] {2:5} "sincere love" is used to translate "agape" (the Greek word
for the strongest kind of love).

[4] {3:8} The meaning of the word "Devil" (Greek diabolou) is "one
prone to slander, a false accuser."

