Announcement about the word of life

1 We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life. ² The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. ³ What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete.

The message: God is light

⁵ This is the message that we have heard from him and announce to you: “God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.” ⁶ If we claim, “We have fellowship with him,” and live in the darkness, we are lying and do not act truthfully. ⁷ But if we live in the light in the same way as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. ⁸ If we claim, “We don’t have any sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong. ¹⁰ If we claim, “We have never sinned,” we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Living in the light

2 My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. ² He is God’s way of dealing with our sins, not only ours but the sins of the whole world. ³ This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. ⁴ The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. ⁵ But the love of God is truly perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know we are in him. ⁶ The one who claims to remain in him ought to live in the same way as he lived.

⁷ Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard. ⁸ On the other hand, 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 already shines. ⁹ The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. ¹⁰ The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. ¹¹ But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and lives in the darkness, and doesn’t know where to go because the darkness blinds the eyes.

Motivations for writing

¹² Little children, I’m writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus’ name. ¹³ Parents, I’m writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you because you have conquered the evil one. ¹⁴ Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I write to you because you are strong, the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

Warning about the world

¹⁵ Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ Everything that is in the world—the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one’s possessions—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.

Remaining in the truth

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us. ²⁰ But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I don’t write to you because you don’t know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? Isn’t it the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, what you heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in relationship to the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ This is the promise that he himself gave us: eternal life. ²⁶ I write these things to you about those who are attempting to deceive you. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains on you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you the truth. But since his anointing teaches you about all things (it’s true and not a lie), remain in relationship to him just as he taught you.

Remaining until Jesus appears

²⁸ And now, little children, remain in relationship to Jesus, so that when he appears we can have confidence and not be ashamed in front of him when he comes. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you also know that every person who practices righteousness is born from him.

Greetings

1 A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. Christ made it known by sending it through his angel to his servant John, ² who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, including all that John saw. ³ Favored is the one who reads the words of this prophecy out loud, and favored are those who listen to it being read, and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

⁴ John, to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before God’s throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ who made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and always. Amen.

⁷ Look, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. This is so. Amen. ⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.”

Christ appears to John

⁹ I, John, your brother who shares with you in the hardship, kingdom, and endurance that we have in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and my witness about Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in a Spirit-inspired trance on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet. ¹¹ It said, “Write down on a scroll whatever you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹² I turned to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven oil lamps burning on top of seven gold stands. ¹³ In the middle of the lampstands I saw someone who looked like the Human One.^[a] He wore a robe that stretched down to his feet, and he had a gold sash around his chest. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white as white wool—like snow—and his eyes were like a fiery flame. ¹⁵ His feet were like fine brass that has been purified in a furnace, and his voice sounded like rushing water. ¹⁶ He held seven stars in his right hand, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His appearance was like the sun shining with all its power.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he put his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and the Grave. ¹⁹ So write down what you have seen, both the scene now before you and the things that are about to unfold after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands, here is what they mean: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.