Bible in 90 Days

¹³ Who among you is wise and knows about things? He should show what he knows by his good life. He will not be proud because he is wise.

¹⁴ Are you a person who is very jealous? In your hearts you want to be better than others? Then stop being proud of yourself. Do not say what is not true.

¹⁵ God did not give you wisdom like that. But it comes from this world. It comes from people. It comes from bad spirits.

¹⁶ If people are jealous of others, their lives are not right. They do every kind of wrong thing to get what they want. They confuse and upset people.

¹⁷ First of all, when God makes people wise, they are holy. They do not fight. They are gentle. They listen to what other people say. They are very kind and do many good things. They do not quarrel. They do not say what is not true.

¹⁸ People who do not quarrel have peace. When there is peace, there is a good life.

4 Why do you fight and quarrel? It is because your feelings are fighting inside of you. That is why you fight.

² You want something but you cannot get it. Then you kill. You want something very much and cannot get it. So you quarrel and fight. You do not get it because you do not ask God for it.

³ You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.

⁴ You people promised God you would be true to him, but you did not stay true! Do you not know that if you love the world you hate God? Anyone who wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵ The holy writings say, `God gave his Spirit to live in us. And that Spirit wants us for himself.' Do you think this means nothing?

⁶ But God helps you even more than that. That is why the holy writings say, `God fights against those who are proud, but he helps those who are not proud.'

⁷ So let God control you. Fight the devil and he will run away from you.

⁸ Come to God and he will come to you. You bad people, make your hands clean! You love what is good and what is wrong at the same time. Make your hearts clean.

⁹ Be sad about this, and cry. Turn your laughing into crying. Stop being happy. Be sad.

¹⁰ Do not be proud before the Lord. Then he will lift you up.

¹¹ My brothers, do not say wrong things about each other. A man who says wrong things about his brother or judges his brother is saying wrong things about God's law and he is judging God's law. If you judge the law, you are not obeying the law, but you are a judge.

¹² God made the law and he is the judge. And he is the one who can save you or kill you. Who are you that you should judge your neighbour?

¹³ Listen to me! You say, `Today or tomorrow we will go to that town. We will stay there a year. We will buy and sell and get rich.' But you do not know what will happen to you tomorrow.

¹⁴ What is your life like? It is like a cloud. It is here for a little while and then it is gone.

¹⁵ You should say `If the Lord wants to do it, we will live and do this or that.'

¹⁶ But now you talk about the big things you will do. All that kind of talk is wrong!

¹⁷ But if a person knows what he should do and he does not do it, he has done something wrong.

5 Rich people, listen to me! Cry loud and long because of the troubles you will have.

² Your things are spoiled. Bugs have eaten your clothes.

³ Your gold and silver are all spoiled. The wrong in them will prove that you have done wrong. The wrong will burn you up like fire. You have kept all these things and now time is almost ended.

⁴ Listen! Men worked in your fields to cut your grain and you did not pay them! That money shouts against you. The men who cut your harvest have called out to the Lord who has power and he has heard them.

⁵ You have had a good time on earth. You have done anything you wanted to do. Your lives are full of everything. Like a fat animal, you will soon be killed.

⁶ You have punished good people. You have killed them. And they do not stop you.

⁷ So brothers, take your troubles quietly and wait until the Lord comes. A farmer waits until the harvest grows from the ground. He waits for it a long time until it has had the first and second rain.

⁸ You must wait also. Keep your hearts strong, because the Lord will come soon.

⁹ Brothers, do not say mean things to each other. If you do, you will be judged. Listen, the judge is standing at the door now.

¹⁰ My brothers, look at the lives of the prophets of God who spoke in the name of the Lord. See the troubles they had. They took them and waited. Do as they did.

¹¹ God blesses those who take their troubles quietly and keep on believing. You have heard about Job's troubles and how he took them. And you have seen what the Lord did for him at the end. The Lord is very kind and helps people.

¹² My brothers, here is something that matters very much. When you make a promise do not ask heaven to hear it, or the earth, or any other thing. When you mean `Yes,' just say, `Yes.' And when you mean `No,' just say, `No.' If you do that, you will not be judged.

¹³ Is any one of you in trouble? He should talk to God about it. Is any one of you happy? He should sing songs of praise to God.

¹⁴ Is any one of you sick? He should call for the leaders of the church people. They should talk to God about him and put oil on him in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵ Because they talk to God, and believe, he will hear them. The sick man will be healed. The Lord will make him well again. If the sick man has done wrong things, the Lord will forgive him.

¹⁶ So tell one another the wrong things you have done. And tell God about each other's needs, so that you will be healed. When a good man talks to God, big things can be done.

¹⁷ Elijah was a man like us. He asked God not to let it rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

¹⁸ Then he talked to God again. And it rained. Plants grew on the earth.

¹⁹ My brothers, has one of you left the right way? Has another person brought him back again?

²⁰ Do not forget that the person who has brought a man back from his wrong ways will save that man from death. He will cover up many wrong things and be forgiven.

1 I am Peter. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. I send this letter to God's chosen people. You are like people on a journey. You live in the countries of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. But you do not belong there.

² God the Father chose you as he planned to do long ago. You were made holy by the Spirit. You were chosen to obey Jesus Christ and to be made clean by the blood of his death. May you have much blessing and peace.

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He was very kind to us, and made us his children. So we have a new hope. This hope is a living hope because Jesus Christ was raised from death.

⁴ Because we are God's children, one day we shall receive special blessings. They cannot be spoiled in any way, and they will last for ever. They are kept safe in heaven for you.

⁵ You are saved by God's power because you believe. You will then be fully saved. The way is ready and you will see it when the end of time comes.

⁶ This makes you very glad, even though now maybe you are sad because you have troubles of many kinds. They are only for a short time.

⁷ To believe is worth more than to have gold. Gold can spoil, but it is tested by fire to show that it is good. So troubles test you to prove that you believe. Then, because you really believe, you will be praised and made great and have honour when Jesus Christ comes again.

⁸ You love him even though you have not seen him. You trust him even though you do not see him. And so you are very happy. No words can tell how happy you are. Your joy is very great.

⁹ God will reward you because you have believed. You will then be fully saved.

¹⁰ The prophets of God long ago told about this way of being saved. They tried to find out about it and asked much about it. They spoke words from God telling about the blessing God would give you.

¹¹ The Spirit of Christ in them showed them that Christ would have troubles and after that he would be great. They tried to find out when these things would happen or how things would be when they did happen.

¹² The Spirit showed them that they told these things not for themselves, but for you. And now the men who told you the good news have told you these same things. They spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven. Even the angels wanted very much to know about these things.

¹³ So think clearly. Keep awake. When Jesus Christ comes, he will bring you blessing. Set all your hope on that.

¹⁴ Be children who obey. Do not be like what you were before you knew Christ. Then you did anything you wanted to do.

¹⁵ But be holy in all the things you do. Be holy because the one who has called you is holy.

¹⁶ God says in the holy writings, `You must be holy, because I am holy.'

¹⁷ You call God your Father. He does not think one man is better than another. He judges everyone by what he has done. So then you must fear him as you live your life here on earth.

¹⁸ You know this. You lived the way your fathers taught you to live, and it was not a good way to live. You were bought and set free from that way of life. But you were not bought with silver or gold money, which can spoil.

¹⁹ You were bought with blood that is worth much. It is like the blood of a sheep that is perfect with nothing wrong in its body. You were bought with the blood of Christ.

²⁰ Before the world was made God chose Christ to do it, and Christ came at the end of time for your sake.

²¹ It is through Christ that you believe in God. God raised Christ from death and made him great. And that is why you are able to believe and hope in God.

²² You have obeyed what is true and that has made your hearts clean. And now you really love your Christian brothers. So with your clean hearts, love each other very much.

²³ You have been made God's children. He did not make you his children by something that dies, but by something that cannot die. That is the word of God.

²⁴ The holy writings say, `People may be great. But they are like a flower on the grass. The grass dies and the flower falls off.

²⁵ But the word of the Lord cannot die!' And this word is the good news which has been told to you.

2 So stop all the wrong things you do. Stop all the ways you cheat people. Stop fooling people. Stop being jealous. Stop saying wrong things about people.

² Babies who have just been born want milk very much. In the same way, you should want God's word. That is like good milk. It will make you grow up so that you will then be fully saved.

³ You should want God's word if you have already tasted and know that the Lord is good.

⁴ Come to the Lord Jesus. He is like a living stone. People did not want to use it. But God chose it. It was worth very much to him.

⁵ You also are like living stones. You are being built into a temple, a holy place for God. You are to be holy priests there. You are to give sacrifices to God from your heart. God will accept them because of Jesus Christ.

⁶ The holy writings say, `Listen, I am placing a stone in Zion. It is the main stone of the house. I have chosen it and it is worth very much. Anyone who believes in him will not be ashamed.'

⁷ He is worth very much to you who believe in him. But some people do not believe in him. To them he is, `the stone that the men who were building would not use. But now it is the chief stone at the corner.'

⁸ And to them he is also, `a stone on which people will hit their feet, and a rock that will make them fall down.' They hit their feet on it, because they do not obey the word. It was planned that this would happen to them!

⁹ But you are a chosen people. You are priests to your king. You are a holy nation. You are God's very own people. All this is so that you will tell how good he is. He called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

¹⁰ At one time you were not God's people. But now you are God's people. At one time you did not know God's kindness. Now you do.

¹¹ Dear brothers, you are people who do not belong to this world. You are like visitors who are on a journey. I beg you, do not do the things your body wants to do. Those things fight against your soul.

¹² Live good lives among the people who do not believe. They may talk about you as if you do wrong things. But when they see the good things you do, they will praise God on the day he comes to help you.

¹³ Obey every officer of the government to please the Lord. Obey the king because he is over all.

¹⁴ Obey the rulers because they are sent by him. They are sent to punish those who do wrong things and to praise those who do good things.

¹⁵ That is what God wants you to do. He wants you to do good things. By doing good things, you will stop foolish people from saying wrong things about you. They say wrong things about you because they do not know you.

¹⁶ You are free people. But do not think, `I am free so I can do wrong things.' You are God's servants.

¹⁷ Respect all men. Love your Christian brothers. Fear God. Respect the king.

¹⁸ Servants, respect and obey your masters in all things. Obey not only those who are good to you. But also obey those who are hard on you.

¹⁹ Maybe a person is punished when he has done nothing wrong. If he takes these troubles to please God, he does a very good thing.

²⁰ What praise will you have if you take a beating when you have done something wrong? But when you do right and are punished, if you take it quietly, God is pleased.

²¹ You have been called to do this because Christ also was punished for you. He showed you what you should do. So do as he did.

²² He did no wrong. And he told no lie.

²³ When people said wrong things to him, he did not say wrong things to them. When he was punished, he did not say, `I will do something to you!' But he trusted in God who judges what is right.

²⁴ Christ in his own body took the wrong things we have done to the cross. He did this so that we would stop our bad ways and live right. Because he was punished, you were healed.

²⁵ Like lost sheep, you were going away from God. But now you have come back to the one who takes care of you and helps you.

3 Wives, respect and obey your husbands in the same way. Then the husbands who do not obey the word of God will want to know God. They will want to know God because their wives live good lives, even though they say nothing about God.

² They will see that you live holy lives and respect your husbands.

³ You should not be fine on the outside only. Some women make their hair nice. They wear gold things. They have fine clothes.

⁴ But you must be fine in your heart. Have a heart that is gentle and quiet. That will not wear out. And God thinks it is worth very much.

⁵ There were holy women long ago who trusted in God. They made themselves nice in this way. They obeyed their husbands.

⁶ Sarah obeyed Abraham. She called him her master. You are her children if you do what is right and are not afraid of trouble.

⁷ Husbands, also live with your wife the way you know is right. Respect her because she is a woman. She is not as strong as a man. Also respect her because God has given her, as well as you, the blessing of life. In this way, you will not stop God from doing what you ask him to do.

⁸ Here is one thing more. You must all agree. You must care when others have trouble. You must love your Christian brothers. You must be kind. You must not be proud.

⁹ You must not do wrong things to those who do wrong things to you. You must not say wrong things to those who say wrong things to you. But ask God to bless those people. This is what you have been called to do. Then God will bless you.

¹⁰ The holy writings say,`A man who wants to live and have good days must not say wrong things. He must not say anything that is not true.

¹¹ He must turn away from anything wrong and do what is good. He must try hard to find peace, and keep on looking for it.

¹² The Lord watches over those who do good. He listens when they talk to him. But the Lord is against those who do wrong things.'

¹³ Who will do something bad to you if you want to do what is good?

¹⁴ But even if people trouble you because you do right, God will bless you. Do not be afraid of them. And do not be troubled.

¹⁵ Worship Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope you have. But be gentle and respect him.

¹⁶ Keep your hearts clean. Then when people say wrong things about you, they will be ashamed because they have talked wrongly about your good Christian life.

¹⁷ It is better to have trouble for doing right, if God allows it, than to have trouble for doing wrong.

¹⁸ For Christ died that once because of our wrong ways. He was good and he died for those who were bad. He did this to bring us to God. His body died, but his spirit had new life.

¹⁹ His spirit went and gave his message to people's spirits who were in prison.

²⁰ In the days long ago, they did not obey God. God waited for them to do so while Noah was building the big house on the boat. A few people, only eight, were saved by going through the water.

²¹ The water of baptism is like that. It saves you. It does not save you because it washes dirt from your bodies. But it saves you because you bring yourselves to God with a clean heart. It saves you because Jesus Christ has been raised from death.

²² He has gone up into heaven. He is now at the right side of God. Angels, rulers, and governments obey him.

4 Christ suffered in his body. You also must be ready to have the same trouble happen to you. When a man has suffered in his body, he has stopped doing wrong things.

² For the rest of his life on earth he will not do what people want to do. He will do what God wants him to do.

³ In the time past you did the same things as people who do not believe God. Let that be enough. You did things you should be ashamed of. You did what you wanted to do. You got drunk. You got into fights. You took part in noisy feasting with dancing. You did wrong by worshipping idols.

⁴ Those people are surprised now that you do not do the same wrong things they do. And they say wrong things about you.

⁵ They will have to explain what they are doing. They will have to talk to God about what they have done. He is ready to judge living people and dead people.

⁶ That is why the good news was also told to those who are now dead. They will be judged like men who are alive. This was done so that they could live like God in the spirit.

⁷ It is almost the time when the world will end. So be wise and watch and talk to God.

⁸ Here is something that matters very much. You must love each other very much. Love will cover up many wrong things.

⁹ Be glad to take other Christians into your house and care for them. And do not grumble about it.

¹⁰ God has given each person a gift. That gift is something he can do. Each one should use his gift to help the others. In that way you all make good use of the many blessings God has given you.

¹¹ Has God blessed you by knowing how to talk? Then you should talk the words of God. Are you a helper? Then you should help with the strength God has given you. In all that you do, you should show that God is great through Jesus Christ. He has praise and power for ever. Yes, he has!

¹² My dear brothers, do not be surprised by the hard trouble like fire that comes to test you. Do not think some new thing is happening to you.

¹³ Be glad when you suffer as Christ did. Then you will also be very glad when he comes and you see how great he is.

¹⁴ Do men say wrong things about you because you are a Christian? Then you are blessed because the wonderful Spirit, the Spirit of God, is with you.

¹⁵ Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not do wrong. Do not try to boss other people. None of you should suffer because you have done these things.

¹⁶ But if a man suffers because he is a Christian, he should not be ashamed of it. He should praise God that he is a Christian.

¹⁷ The time has come for God to judge people. God's people will be judged first. If we are judged first, what will happen at the end to those who do not obey the good news of God?

¹⁸ The holy writings say, `If it is hard for a good person to be saved, what will happen to a person who is against God and lives a bad life?'

¹⁹ If God allows you to suffer, trust him. He made you and you can trust him. But keep on doing good things.

5 So I am talking to the leaders among you. I am also a leader. I saw the sufferings of Christ. And I will have some part of his greatness when he comes again.

² Take good care of God's people. They have been given to you to care for. Do this, not because you must do it, but because you want to please God. Do it not for the money that you get for doing it, but because you are glad to do it.

³ Do not be like a boss over the people you care for, telling them how to live. But show them how to live by the way you live.

⁴ Christ the big Shepherd who takes care of all people is coming. When he comes, he will give you a crown to show that you are great. You will have it for ever.

⁵ Also, you who are younger men, obey your leaders. I say to all of you, do not be proud. Do not think you are better than the others. The holy writings say, `God fights against proud people, but he helps those who are not proud.'

⁶ You are under God's power. Do not be proud, so that at the right time he may put you into a higher place.

⁷ Turn all your troubles over to him, because he cares for you and is watching over you.

⁸ Keep awake! Watch! Your enemy the devil is walking around like a growling lion. He is looking for someone to catch.

⁹ Fight against the devil. Be strong because you believe. Remember that your brothers all over the world suffer the same kind of trouble as you.

¹⁰ God gives all blessings. He has called you through Christ to be great with him for ever. When you have suffered for a short time, he will make you all right. He will make you strong and steady.

¹¹ He has power for ever. Yes, he has!

¹² Silas has written this short letter for me. I believe he is a brother who can be trusted. I have written to help you and tell you the true way to have God's blessing. Stand firm in that way!

¹³ The church people in the city of Babylon greet you. God has also chosen them. My son Mark also greets you.

¹⁴ Greet one another with a kiss of love. May all of you who are Christians have peace.

1 I am Simon Peter. I am a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I send greetings to you who have believed as we have. Believing is worth just as much to you as it is to us. This is because our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is right and good.

² May the loving kindness of God bless you and give you more and more peace because you know God and Jesus our Lord.

³ Christ is God and by his own power he has given us everything that we need to live and to please God. He has given this to us because we know him, and he has called us because he is great and good.

⁴ Because of these things, he has promised us things that are worth very much and are very great. He has promised these things to us so that by them you may become like God too. By them you will be kept free from the selfish desires of the people in the world. These desires lead to death.

⁵ So now you believe, try to live a good life. When you live a good life, try to learn more about God.

⁶ When you have learned more, be strong to do what is right. Then go on doing what is right, even if it is hard. As you go about doing right, keep close to God.

⁷ As you keep close to God, love your Christian brothers. When you love your Christian brothers, love everyone!

⁸ If you do these things and you do them more and more, you will be good Christians and you will know more and more about our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ But the man who does not do these things is like a blind man. He can see only a little way. He has forgotten that he was made clean from the wrong things he used to do.

¹⁰ So my brothers, try to show that God has called you and chosen you. If you do these things, you will never fall.

¹¹ That will make it easy for you to go into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His kingdom will be for ever.

¹² I do want always to bring these things to your minds. I will do this even though you know them, and even though you are strong in the true way that you already have.

¹³ I think it is right, as long as I live, to keep these things in your minds.

¹⁴ I know that I will not live long now. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told me about that.

¹⁵ But I will try to see that you have something to bring these things to your minds, even after I am gone.

¹⁶ We have told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he is coming again. We did not tell you stories someone told us. We ourselves saw how great he is.

¹⁷ God the Father praised him and showed that he is great. A voice came from the bright cloud and said to him, `This is my Son. I love him and he pleases me very much.'

¹⁸ We heard this voice which came from heaven. It happened when we were on the holy hill with Jesus.

¹⁹ And so we are more sure about what the prophets of God said long ago. You will do well to listen to them. It is like a lamp shining in a dark place. Then the daylight will come and the morning star will shine in your hearts.

²⁰ First you must understand this. The words from the prophets in the holy writings did not come from their own minds.

²¹ The prophets did not say what they wanted to say. But the Holy Spirit made them speak. And they spoke God's message.

2 But prophets who were not true were also among the people of Israel. Also there will be teachers who will not be true among you. They will bring in wrong teaching that leads to death. They will even say that they do not belong to the Master who bought them. And so they will quickly bring themselves to death.

² Many people will do the same wrong things they do. And because of them, men will say wrong things about the true way.

³ Because they are greedy for money, they will trick you with lies. For a long time God has planned to punish them. They will be punished at the right time.

⁴ God punished the angels who did wrong. He put them into the darkest part of hell. They must be kept there until the time when they will be judged.

⁵ In the days long ago, God punished the world. But he saved Noah who told people what was right. And God saved seven other people. But he made water cover the world full of bad people.

⁶ God burned up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He punished them so that no cities were left. He did this to show what would happen to bad people.

⁷ But God saved Lot out of the trouble. Lot was a good man. He did not like the wrong way the bad people lived.

⁸ That good man lived among the bad people and he saw and heard what they did. Day after day, the bad things they did troubled his heart because he was a good man.

⁹ The Lord knows how to save good people out of the trouble that tests them. And he knows how to keep bad people until the day when he will judge them. And they are being punished even now.

¹⁰ Most of all, he will punish people who do the wrong things they want to do and who will not obey the men who rule over them. They are very bold and proud. They do not fear to say wrong things about those who are great, even about the angels.

¹¹ Angels have more strength and power than they. And yet the angels do not judge them and say wrong things about them to the Lord.

¹² These people are like animals that cannot think. They are like animals that are born to be caught and killed. They say wrong things about things they do not understand. They will die like the animals.

¹³ Bad things will happen to them because they have done wrong things. They think it is fun to have a good time during the day. They are like spots and sores. They like to eat and drink at the love feasts with you. They are trying to fool you.

¹⁴ They are always looking for women to have sex with them. They never stop their wrong ways. They fool people whose hearts are not strong to do right. They always want more and more money. God's curse is on them!

¹⁵ They have left the right road and have done wrong. They follow the same road that Balaam walked. He was the son of Beor. He loved the pay he would get for doing a wrong thing.

¹⁶ But he was told to stop doing wrong. The animal he was riding talked with a man's voice. It tried to make the prophet stop his foolish way.

¹⁷ These men are like wells with no water in them. They are like fog that is blown away by a strong wind. A very dark place has been kept to put them in.

¹⁸ They say big and foolish things. They fool people who have just left those who live in wrong ways. They fool them by making them want to do wrong things with their bodies.

¹⁹ They promise them that they will be free. But they themselves are slaves of death. A man is a slave of anything that rules over him.

²⁰ They left the wrong ways of the world because they knew our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then when they went back to the wrong ways again, they were ruled by them. Then they will have more trouble than they had at first.

²¹ It would have been better for them if they had never known the right way! Because they knew the right way, it was very wrong for them to turn from the holy law God gave them.

²² They show that this saying is true, `The dog goes back to eat what his own stomach threw up!' and, `A pig that is washed rolls in the mud again!'

3 My dear brothers, this is my second letter to you. In both of my letters I have tried to bring some things to your good minds.

² I want you to remember what God's prophets said would happen. And I want you to remember what we apostles told you that our Lord and Saviour said.

³ Here is the first thing. In the last days, men will come who will make fun of holy things. They will do what they themselves want to do.

⁴ They will say, `He promised to come. Where is he? Our fathers have died. And since then everything is just the same as it has been since the world was made.'

⁵ They do not want to remember that long ago God spoke and made the sky. He made the land come up from the water.

⁶ But later on these same waters covered the world in a flood and the people died.

⁷ The sky and the earth that are here now are being kept because God spoke. They are kept to be burned up. This will happen on the day when God judges people and they will die.

⁸ My dear brothers, do not forget this one thing. One day is like a thousand years to the Lord. And a thousand years are like one day.

⁹ God will do what he promised. He is not slow though, as some people think he is. But he is waiting a long time for you. He does not want anyone to die, but he wants all people to stop their wrong ways.

¹⁰ The day of the Lord will come like a man who wants to steal. There will be a loud noise and the sky will go away. The elements will melt with fire and they will be gone. The earth and everything on it will be burned up.

¹¹ That is the way the whole world will go. So think what kind of people you should be! Think how holy and true to God your lives should be!

¹² You should look for the day of God and do everything you can to make it come quickly. On that day the sky will be on fire and go away. The elements will burn and melt away.

¹³ But we are looking for a new sky and a new earth which God has promised. Only good things will be in them.

¹⁴ My dear brothers, you are looking for these things. So do all you can so that the Lord will find you without any bad or wrong thing in your lives. Let him find you at peace with one another.

¹⁵ Think of this. He is waiting a long time so that people will be saved. Our dear brother Paul also wrote these things to you, because God has made him wise.

¹⁶ He also tells about them in all his letters. Some things in his letters are hard to understand. Some people do not know about these things and they are not strong in their faith. They change the meaning of the things Paul wrote. They do this to other things in the holy writings also. Because they do this, they will die.

¹⁷ My dear brothers, you know about these things before they happen. Take care that you do not do the same things that bad people do. Take care that you do not stop believing the right way.

¹⁸ Have more and more of God's blessing and kindness. Learn more and more about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is great now, and he will be great for ever! Amen! Yes he will!

1 The Word of life always was living, even from the beginning. We heard him. We saw him with our own eyes. We looked at him, and we touched him with our own hands. We are writing to you about this Word of life.

² This life came to earth. We saw him, and we know about him. And we tell you about this life that lives for ever. This life was with the Father and came to us.

³ We tell you also what we have seen and heard. We tell you so that you also will belong with us. And we belong with the Father and the Son.

⁴ We write these things to you so that we all will be very happy.

⁵ God is like light and he is not dark at all. That is the message we heard from him. That is the message we are telling you.

⁶ Do we say that we belong with him? And at the same time, do we live in the dark? Then what we say is not true, and what we do is not right.

⁷ Do we live in the light, as God is in the light? Then we belong with others who belong to him. And the blood of the death of Jesus Christ makes us clean from all the wrong things we have done.

⁸ Do we say, `We have no wrong ways'? Then we are fooling ourselves, and we do not know what is true.

⁹ Let us tell God about our wrong ways. God can be trusted. He does what is right. He will forgive us for the wrong things we have done. He will make us clean from all that was wrong.

¹⁰ Do we say, `We have not done anything wrong'? This is like saying that God is not true. That means we do not accept God's word.

2 My children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not do wrong things. But if anyone does something wrong, we have a Friend to help us. He speaks to God for us. He is Jesus Christ who does what is right.

² He himself is the sacrifice God offered to pay for the wrong we have done. And he pays for the wrong things all people in all the world have done.

³ We can be sure that we know him when we obey his laws.

⁴ If any man says, `I know him' and does not obey his laws, he is telling a lie. He does not know what is true.

⁵ But if any man obeys his word, he really loves God. Here is the way that we may be sure that we belong to him.

⁶ If any man says he belongs to him, he must live in the same way Christ lived.

⁷ My dear brothers, I am not writing you a new law. This is an old law. You had it from the beginning. The old law is the word which you have heard.

⁸ But in a way, I am writing you a new law. The darkness is going away and the true light is shining already.

⁹ Does anyone say he is in the light, and hates his brother? Then he is still in the dark.

¹⁰ The man who loves his brother lives in the light. There is nothing in him to make him do wrong.

¹¹ But the man who hates his brother is in the dark. He lives in the dark. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind.

¹² Children, I am writing to you because God has forgiven the wrong things you have done. Your wrong ways have been forgiven because of what Christ did.

¹³ Fathers, I am writing to you because you know the One who has lived from the beginning. Young men, I am writing to you because you have won the victory over the devil. Children, I write to you because you know Father God.

¹⁴ Fathers, I write to you because you know him, the one who has lived from the beginning. Young men, I write to you because you are strong. You believe God's word. You have won the victory over the devil.

¹⁵ Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, he does not love the Father.

¹⁶ Nothing in the world comes from the Father. I mean the wrong things people like to do with their bodies. I mean the things people see and want to have. I mean all the things people are proud of in this life. These things come from the world, not the Father.

¹⁷ And the world will go away and all the things in it that people like to do. But the person who does what God wants him to do will live for ever.

¹⁸ Children, we are very near the end of time. You have heard that someone will come who is against Christ. Many who are against Christ have already come. That is how we know that we are very near the end of time.

¹⁹ They left us, but they did not belong with us. If they had belonged with us, they would have stayed with us. But they left us so that people could see that all of them did not belong with us.

²⁰ But the Holy One has given you a gift of understanding so that you all may know what is true.

²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know what is true, but because you do know. And you know that no lie is true.

²² Who then is the one who says what is not true? It is the one who says that Jesus is not the Christ. That person is against Christ, because he says there is no Father and there is no Son.

²³ Everyone who says Jesus is not the Son does not know the Father. And everyone who says Jesus is the Son knows the Father.

²⁴ So keep what you have heard from the beginning. If you keep what you have heard from the beginning, you too belong to the Son and to the Father.

²⁵ And he himself has promised us that we will live for ever.

²⁶ I have written these things to you about the ones who try to fool you.

²⁷ You have a gift of understanding from Christ. That gift stays with you. You do not need anyone to teach you. His gift teaches you about everything. It is true. It is not a lie. So stay with him as he has taught you.

²⁸ Now, my children, stay with Christ. Then we will not be afraid on that day when we see him again. We will not be ashamed to stand before him when he comes again.

²⁹ You know that he does what is right. So you know also that everyone who does what is right is his child.

3 See how much the Father has loved us! We are called God's children. It is true, we are God's children. People in this world did not know him and so they do not know us.

² My dear brothers, we are God's children now. No one knows yet what we shall be like. But we know that when Jesus comes, we will be like him. We will see him as he really is.

³ Everyone who has this hope about Christ makes his life holy. He makes his life holy and clean, just as Christ is holy.

⁴ Everyone who does wrong things is breaking God's law. Doing wrong things is breaking the law.

⁵ You know that Christ came to take away the wrong things people have done. He is the one who has done no wrong.

⁶ Everyone who stays with him does not do wrong things. Everyone who does wrong things has never seen him and has never known him.

⁷ My children, do not let anyone fool you. Anyone who does what is good, is good just as Christ is good.

⁸ Anyone who does what is wrong belongs to the devil. The devil has done what is wrong from the beginning. That is why God's Son came. He came to stop what the devil does.

⁹ No one who is God's child does wrong things, because God's life is in him. And he cannot keep on doing wrong things, because he is God's child.

¹⁰ This is how people can know who are God's children and who are the devil's children. Everyone who does not do right is not God's child. And anyone who does not love his brother is not God's child.

¹¹ This is the word you have heard from the beginning. `We must love one another.'

¹² We must not be like Cain. He was a child of the devil and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? He killed him because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right with God.

¹³ My brothers, do not be surprised if people in this world hate you.

¹⁴ We know that we have gone from death to life. We know this because we love the Christian brothers. Anyone who does not love them has not gone from death to life.

¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is like a man who kills a person. And you know that no one who kills a person has life that will live for ever.

¹⁶ Christ died for us. That is how we know what love is. We also should be willing to die for our brothers.

¹⁷ Perhaps a man has plenty of food and things. He sees that his brother needs some. If he does not want to help his brother, does he love God?

¹⁸ My children, we must not only talk about loving people; we must show we love people by what we do for them. We must really love them.

¹⁹ And this is how we will know that we are true. This is why we will not be afraid in front of God.

²⁰ Even if our hearts think we are wrong, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.

²¹ My dear brothers, if our hearts do not think we are wrong, we will not be afraid in front of God.

²² If we ask God for something, we get it. We get it because we obey his laws. We get it because we do what pleases him.

²³ This is his law. We must believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. And we must love one another as he told us to do.

²⁴ If anyone obeys his laws, he belongs to God and God belongs to him. God has given us the Holy Spirit. That is how we know that God is with us.

4 My dear brothers, do not trust every spirit. But test the spirits to see if they belong to God. There are many prophets who are not true who have gone out into the world.

² Here is how you can know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that believes that Jesus Christ has come in the body of a man is from God.

³ And every spirit that does not say this about Jesus, does not belong to God. That is the spirit of the one who is against Christ. You have heard that he is coming. And now he is already in the world.

⁴ My children, you belong to God. You have won the victory over those prophets who are not true. You have won because the Spirit that is in you is stronger than the spirit that is in the world.

⁵ Those prophets belong to the world. That is why they teach about things in the world. And that is why the people of the world listen to them.

⁶ But we belong to God. Anyone who knows God listens to us. Anyone who does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know if a spirit is true or not true.

⁷ My dear brothers, we must love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves others is God's child and he knows God.

⁸ But anyone who does not love others does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ This is how God showed his love for us. He sent his only Son into the world to give us life.

¹⁰ This is love! We did not love God, but he loved us. And he sent his Son to be the sacrifice to pay for the wrong things we have done.

¹¹ My dear brothers, if God loved us so much, we must love one another also.

¹² No man has ever seen God. But God lives in us if we love one another. And in loving one another, his love is made perfect.

¹³ He has given us of his own Spirit. That is how we know that we are in him and he is in us.

¹⁴ And we have seen and we are telling you that the Father sent his Son to save the people in the world.

¹⁵ If anyone says, `Jesus is the Son of God,' God is in him and he is in God.

¹⁶ We know and we believe that God loves us. God is love. And anyone who loves others is in God and God is in him.

¹⁷ That is why we love each other very much. Then we will not be afraid on the day when people are judged. We are like Christ in this world.

¹⁸ Where God's love is, there is no fear. God's perfect love takes away fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear. Anyone who has fear does not have perfect love.

¹⁹ We love others because God first loved us.

²⁰ If anyone says, `I love God', and he hates his brother, he is telling a lie. If he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

²¹ God gave us this law. The person who loves God must love his brother also.

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is God's child. And everyone who loves the Father loves his child.

² This is how we know we love God's children. We love God and we obey his laws.

³ We show that we love God when we obey his laws. His laws are not hard to obey.

⁴ Everyone who is God's child wins a victory over the world. We win because we believe God.

⁵ Who wins a victory over the world? It is only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶ There was water and there was blood when Jesus Christ came. There was not water only, but there was water and there was blood. The Spirit proves this is true, because the Spirit is true.

⁷ There are three in heaven who prove it is true. They are the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one.

⁸ There are three on earth who prove it is true. They are the spirit, the water, and the blood. These three all prove the same thing.

⁹ We believe what people prove to us. But when God proves something it is stronger than what people prove. This is what God proved about his Son.

¹⁰ Anyone who believes in God's Son believes what God says about him. Anyone who does not believe God shows that he thinks what God says is not true. He has not believed what God says about his Son.

¹¹ Here is what God says. He has given us life that will last for ever. And this life is in his Son.

¹² So anyone who has the Son has this life. Anyone who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

¹³ I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God. I have written them so that you will know that you will live for ever.

¹⁴ And we are sure God will do this. If we ask him for anything that he wants us to have, he will listen to us.

¹⁵ And if we know he listens to us when we ask for anything, then we know that we have what we asked him for.

¹⁶ Maybe a man sees his brother do something wrong, but not so bad that he must die for it. The man should ask God and God will let his brother live. God will let people live if the things they have done are not so bad that they must die for them. But there are things so wrong that a person must die for them. If he has done such as that, I do not tell the man to ask God to let him live.

¹⁷ Everything that is wrong is a bad thing. But not every bad thing is so wrong that a person must die for it.

¹⁸ We know that any child of God does not do wrong things. The Son of God keeps him safe and the devil cannot touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we belong to God and the whole world belongs to the devil.

²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come. He has given us a heart to know him who is true. We belong to him who is true, because we belong to his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He has the life that will live for ever.

²¹ My children, have nothing to do with false gods or idols.

¹ From the leader of the church people. I send greetings to the lady whom God has chosen, and to her children. I love you all because you have the truth about Christ. I am not the only one who loves you. All those who know the truth, love you also.

² We love you because of the truth we share which is in our hearts and will be with us for ever.

³ God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's son, will bless us. They will be kind to us. They will give us peace. They will do these things because they are true, and they love us.

⁴ I was very glad to find that some of your children are living in the right way. They are living the way the Father told us to live.

⁵ And now I want to ask you to do something. I am not telling you to do something new. It is the same law we had from the beginning. It is this, `We must love one another.'

⁶ We love God when we live the way God has told us. This is the law you heard from the beginning. You must live by it.

⁷ Many men who fool people have gone out into the world. They believe that Jesus Christ did not come to live as a man with a body. These men belong to the one who fools people. He is against Christ.

⁸ Watch out for yourselves! Do not lose what you have worked for, but receive all the reward that you should have.

⁹ Everyone who goes too far, and does not believe what Christ taught, does not believe God. Anyone who believes what Christ taught, believes both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you who does not teach what Christ taught, do not take him into your house. Do not even greet him.

¹¹ Anyone who greets him helps him in the wrong things he does.

¹² I have much to write to you. But I do not want to write it on paper. I hope to come to visit you and talk with you. Then we will be very happy.

¹³ The children of your sister whom God has chosen send their greetings.

¹ From the leader of the church people. I send greetings to my dear Gaius. I love you because you have Christ.

² My dear brother, I ask God that you may be all right in every way and that your body may be well. I know that your soul is all right.

³ I was very happy when the brothers came and told me that you have been true. They said you are really living the right way.

⁴ Nothing can make me more happy than to hear that my children are living in the right way. My dear brother, when you help your Christian brothers in any way, even though you do not know them, you show that you do what you say you believe.

⁵ They have told the people of the church here how you showed your love to them. Please send them on their way as God would have you do.

⁶ They went out to do Christ's work. And they have not taken any help from people who do not believe in God.

⁷ So we should help such men with what they need. Then we are doing our part to tell the true message. I wrote a letter to the people of the church. But Diotrephes wants to be the leader. He will not listen to us.

⁸ So if I come, I will show what he is doing. He is saying wrong things about us. And that is not all. He does not take our brothers into his own home. And he stops other people who want to take them in. He will not let them be church members any longer.

⁹ My dear brother, do not do the wrong things people do, but do the good things people do. Anyone who does good things belongs to God. Anyone who does wrong things has never seen God.

¹⁰ Everyone says Demetrius is a good man. All this is true. We say the same thing too. And you know that what we say is true.

¹¹ I have much to write to you. But I do not want to write to you with pen and ink.

¹² I hope to see you very soon. Then we will talk together.

¹³ May God give you peace. Our friends greet you. Greet everyone of my friends.