Bible in 90 Days

¹³ If any be wise and learned among you, let him show the works of his good living in humility that is coupled with wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not be pleased, neither be liars against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, and natural, and devilish. ¹⁶ For where envying and strife are, there is instability and all manner of evil works.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated – full of mercy and good fruits, without judging and without dissimulation. ¹⁸ Yea and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who maintain peace.

Conflict and fighting come from sensuality and covetousness. The friendship of the world is enmity before God. An exhortation to flee slander and the vanity of this life.

4 Where do conflict and fighting come from among you? Do they not come from the sensuality and covetousness that reign in your members? ² You lust, and have not. You envy, and have indignation, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, and have not because you ask not. ³ You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, even to consume it upon your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterers and women who break matrimony, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity toward God? Whoever will be a friend of the world, is made the enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the Spirit that dwells in you resists envy, ⁶ but gives more grace?

⁷ Submit yourselves to God. And resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purge your hearts, ye wavering-minded. ⁹ Suffer afflictions: sorrow ye, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Cast yourselves down before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹ Do not backbite one another, brethren. He who speaks against his brother, and he who judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not an observer of the law, but a judge. ¹² There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you, to judge another man?

¹³ Come now, you who say, Today and tomorrow let us go into such and such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and make money, ¹⁴ and yet do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what thing is your life? It is even a vapour, which appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Therefore you ought to say, If the Lord so wills, and if we live, let us do this or that. ¹⁶ But now you glory in your boastings. All such glorying is evil.

¹⁷ Therefore, to him who knows how to do good but does it not, to him it is sin.

He threatens the wicked rich people. He exhorts to patience, to beware of swearing, to acknowledge our faults to one another, to pray for one another, and one to labour to bring another to the truth.

5 Come now, ye rich people. Weep and howl over your wretchedness that will come upon you. ² Your riches are corrupt; your garments are moth eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver are cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as it were fire.

You have heaped treasure together in your last days. ⁴ Behold, the wages of the labourers who have reaped down your fields (which wages you kept back by fraud) cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and in wantonness. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and have killed the just, and he has not resisted you.

⁷ Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until it receives the early and the latter rain. ⁸ You also, be patient therefore, and settle your hearts. For the coming of the Lord draws near.

⁹ Do not grudge against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge stands before the door.

¹⁰ Take, my brethren, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering adversity, and of long patience. ¹¹ Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have known what end the Lord made. For the Lord is very pitiful and merciful.

¹² But above all things, my brethren, swear not – neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath. Let your yes be yes, and your no no, lest you fall into hypocrisy.

¹³ If any of you be vexed with sorrows, let him pray. If any of you be merry, let him sing psalms. ¹⁴ If any be diseased among you, let him call for the elders of the congregation, and let them pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

¹⁶ Confess your faults to one another. And pray for one another, that you may be healed: The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man mortal just as we are, and he prayed in his prayer that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruits.

¹⁹ Brethren, if any of you err from the truth and another converts him, ²⁰ let him know that he who turned the sinner from going astray out of his way will save a soul from death, and will hide the multitude of sins.

The end of the epistle
of Saint James.

He writes that through the abundant mercy of God, we are begotten again to a living hope, and how faith must be tried. How the salvation in Christ is nothing new, but a thing prophesied of old. He exhorts them to lead godly lives, since they are now born anew by the word of God.

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that dwell here and there as strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia, and Bithynia, ² elect by the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying of the Spirit, for obedience and for sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace be with you, and peace be multiplied.

³ Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his abundant mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death, ⁴ to enjoy an inheritance immortal and undefiled, and that does not perish, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Which salvation is prepared all ready to be shown in the last time – ⁶ in which time you will rejoice, though now for a season (if need require) you are in heaviness ⁷ through manifold trials, so that your faith, once tried, being much more precious than gold that perishes (though it be tried with fire), may be found to laud, glory, and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ – ⁸ whom you have not seen, and yet love him; in whom even now, though you see him not, yet you do believe, and rejoice with joy inexpressible and glorious, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ Of this salvation have the prophets enquired and searched, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, ¹¹ searching when or at what time the Spirit of Christ that was in them was signifying – which Spirit foretold the sufferings that would come to Christ and the glory that would follow after. ¹² To these prophets it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us, they would minister the things that are now shown to you by those who, by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, have preached to you the things which the angels desire to behold.

¹³ Therefore gird up the loins of your minds, be sober, and trust fully on the grace that is brought to you by the declaring of Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ as obedient children – not fashioning yourselves to your old lusts of ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy, in all manner of conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written: Be holy, for I am holy.

¹⁷ And if it be so that you call on the Father, who without respect of person judges according to each one’s works, see that you pass the time of your pilgrimage in fear. ¹⁸ For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible silver and gold from the vain ways that you received from the fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb undefiled and without spot. ²⁰ He was ordained before the world was made, but was shown in these last times for your sakes – ²¹ you who, by means of him, have believed on God, who raised him from death and glorified him so that your faith and hope may be in God.

²² And inasmuch as you have purified your souls through the Spirit, in the obedience of truth with brotherly love unfeigned, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. ²³ For you are born anew, not of mortal seed, but of immortal: by the word of God, which lives and lasts forever.

²⁴ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls away, ²⁵ but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel was preached among you.

He exhorts the people to lay aside all vice, shows that Christ is the foundation they have built upon, and prays them to abstain from fleshly lusts and to obey worldly rulers. How servants should conduct themselves toward their masters. He exhorts them to suffer after the example of Christ.

2 Therefore, lay aside all vice, and all guile and dissimulation and envy, and all backbiting. ² And as newborn babes, desire the milk (not of the body, but of the soul) that is without corruption, so that you may grow therein – ³ if it so be that you have tasted that the Lord is sweet, ⁴ to whom you come as to a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God, and precious.

⁵ And you, as living stones, are made a spiritual house, and a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Of this it is contained in the scripture: Behold, I put in Zion a head cornerstone, elect and precious; and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.

⁷ To you therefore who believe, he is precious. But to those who do not believe, the stone which the builders refused is made the head stone in the corner, ⁸ and a stone to stumble at, and a rock to offend those who stumble at the word and do not believe that whereon they were set.

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and his own special people, in order that you should show forth the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light – ¹⁰ you who in time past were not a people, yet are now the people of God; who were not under mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

¹¹ Dearly beloveds, I beseech you: as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which fight against the soul. ¹² And see that you lead virtuous lives among the Gentiles, so that those who backbite you as evil-doers may see your good works and praise God in the day of visitation.

¹³ Submit yourselves to every human authority, for the Lord’s sake – whether it be to the king as to the chief head, ¹⁴ or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, but for the praise of those who do well. ¹⁵ For so is the will of God, so that you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men – ¹⁶ as free, and not as having freedom for a cloak of evil, but even as the servants of God.

¹⁷ Honour all people. Love brotherly fellowship. Fear God, and honour the king.

¹⁸ Servants, obey your masters with all fear, not only if they are good and kind, but also though they be ill-natured. ¹⁹ For it is meritorious if a person for conscience towards God endures grief, suffering wrongfully. ²⁰ For how is it praiseworthy if when you are buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if when you do well you suffer wrong, and take it patiently, then is there favour with God.

²¹ For to this indeed you have been called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps – ²² who did no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth; ²³ who, when he was reviled, reviled not in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed the cause to him who judges righteously. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we may be delivered from sin and live in righteousness; by his stripes you were healed. ²⁵ For you were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

How wives ought to order themselves toward their husbands and in their apparel. The duty of men toward their wives. He exhorts them all to unite and to love, and patiently to suffer trouble. Of baptism.

3 Likewise, let the wives be subject to their husbands, so that even those who do not believe in the word may without the word be won by the conduct of the wives, ² when they see your pure living coupled with fear.

³ Your adornment should not be outward, with broided hair and hanging on of gold, or in putting on gorgeous apparel, ⁴ but let the hid man of the heart be incorrupt, with a meek and quiet spirit – which spirit is before God a thing much set by. ⁵ For after this manner in the old time did the holy women who trusted in God attire themselves, and were obedient to their husbands, ⁶ even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, and called him Lord – whose daughters you are as long as you do well, not being afraid of every shadow.

⁷ Likewise, ye men, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel, and as to those who are heirs also of the grace of life, so that your prayers be not hindered.

⁸ In conclusion, be ye all of one mind, suffer with one another, love as brethren, be tender-hearted. Be mild and courteous – ⁹ not rendering evil for evil, nor rebuke for rebuke, but contrariwise bless, remembering that you are called to this, even so that you may be heirs of blessing. ¹⁰ If anyone longs after life and loves to see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. ¹¹ Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. ¹² For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

¹³ Moreover, who is it that will harm you if you follow that which is good? ¹⁴ Notwithstanding, happy are you if you suffer for righteousness’ sake. Yea, and fear not, though men seem terrible to you, neither be troubled, ¹⁵ but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. 

Be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you – and that with meekness and fear, ¹⁶ having a good conscience, so that when they backbite you as evildoers, they may be ashamed, seeing they have falsely accused your good living in Christ.

¹⁷ It is better (if the will of God be so) that you suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing. ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, in order to bring us to God; and was killed as concerning the flesh, but was quickened to life in the Spirit. ¹⁹ In which Spirit he also went and preached to the spirits who were in prison, ²⁰ who were in time past disobedient, when the longsuffering of God abode exceeding patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, wherein few, that is to say, eight souls, were saved by water. ²¹ This signifies the baptism that now saves us – not the removal of soil from the flesh, but in that a good conscience consents to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who is on the right hand of God, and has gone into heaven, angels, power, and might subdued to him.

He exhorts people to cease from sin, to spend no more time in vice, to be sober, to be fit and ready to pray, to love each other, and to be patient in trouble – and to beware that no one suffer as an evil-doer, but only as Christian; and not to be ashamed.

4 Inasmuch as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he who suffers in the flesh, ceases from sin, ² that he henceforward should live as much time as remains in the flesh, not after the lusts or desires of men, but after the will of God. ³ For it is enough for us that we have spent the time that is past of our life after the will of the Gentiles, walking in wantonness, lusts, drunkenness; in eating, drinking, and in abominable idolatry.

⁴ And it seems to them a strange thing that you run not also with them to the same excess of disorder, and therefore they speak evil of you. ⁵ But they will give accounts to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead. ⁶ For to this purpose was the gospel preached to the dead: that they should be judged like other men in the flesh, but should live before God in the spirit.

⁷ The end of all things is at hand. Be therefore discreet and sober, so that you may be fit for prayer. ⁸ But above all things, have fervent love among you. For love covers the multitude of sins.

⁹ Be ready to take one another into your homes, and that without grudging. ¹⁰ As each one has received the gift, minister the same to one another, as good ministers of the manifold grace of God. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him do so as though he spoke the words of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as of the ability that God gives to him, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and while the world stands. Amen.

¹² Dearly beloveds, be not troubled in this heat that has now come among you to try you, as if some strange thing had happened to you. ¹³ But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s passions, so that when his glory appears, you may be merry and glad. ¹⁴ If you are railed upon for the name of Christ, happy are you. For the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.

¹⁵ See that none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief or an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. ¹⁶ If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in the matter. ¹⁷ For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. If it first begins at us, what shall the end be of those who do not believe the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And if the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? ¹⁹ Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him with well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.

A special exhortation for all bishops or priests to feed the flock of Christ, and what their duty is, and what reward they shall have if they be diligent. He exhorts young persons to submit themselves to the elders, and everyone to love one another, to be sober, and to watch so that they may resist the enemy.

5 The elders who are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the afflictions of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. ² See that you feed the flock of Christ that is among you, taking the oversight of them not as though you were compelled to it, but willingly; ³ not for wrongful gain, but of a good mind; not as though you were lords over the parishes, but so that you are an example to the flock. ⁴ And when the chief shepherd appears, you shall receive an incorruptible crown of glory.

⁵ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to the elders. Submit yourselves everyone, one to another. Knit yourselves together in lowliness of mind. For God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. ⁶ Submit yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you when the time is come. ⁷ Cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

⁸ Be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; ⁹ whom resist steadfast in the faith, remembering that you do but fulfil the same afflictions as are appointed to your brethren that are in the world. ¹⁰ The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, will his own self, after you have suffered a little affliction, make you perfect – will settle, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be glory and dominion forever and while the world endures. Amen.

¹² By Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother to you, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying how this is the true grace of God, wherein you stand.

¹³ The companions of your election who are at Babylon send greetings to you; and Mark, my son.

¹⁴ Greet ye one another with the kiss of love.

Peace be with you
all who are in
Christ Jesus.
Amen.

Since God by his power has given them all things pertaining to life, he exhorts them to flee the corruption of worldly lust, and to make their calling sure with good works and fruits of faith. He makes mention of his own death, declaring the Lord to be the true Son of God, as he himself saw upon the mount.

1 Simon peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us in the righteousness that comes of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

² Grace be with you, and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us by virtue and glory, ⁴ by the means whereof are given to us excellent and most great promises, so that by the help of them you may be partakers of the divine nature, in that you flee the corruption of worldly lust.

⁵ And give all diligence to this. To your faith add virtue, and to virtue knowledge, ⁶ and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, to patience godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things be among you and abound, they will make you so that you will neither be idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But he who lacks these things is blind, and gropes for the way with his hands, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do such things, you shall never err. ¹¹ Yea, and by this means a grand entering in will be given you into the ever-lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

¹² And so I will not be negligent to put you always in mind of such things, though you know them yourselves, and are also established in the present truth. ¹³ Notwithstanding, I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. ¹⁴ For I am sure that the time is at hand that I must put off my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. ¹⁵ I will do my best to ensure, therefore, that on every side you have something with which to stir up the remembrance of these things after my departing.

¹⁶ For we were not following deceitful fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but with our own eyes we saw his majesty – ¹⁷ even then truly when he received from God the Father honour and glory, and when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory: This is my dear beloved Son, in whom I have delight. ¹⁸ This voice we heard when it came from heaven, being with him in the holy mount.

¹⁹ We have also a right sure word of prophecy, to which, if you take heed as to a light that shines in a dark place, you do well, until the day dawns and the day star arises in your hearts.  ²⁰ And first understand this: that no prophecy in the scripture has any private interpretation. ²¹ For the scripture never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

He prophesies of false teachers, and shows their punishment.

2 There were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will slyly bring in damnable sects, even denying the Lord who has bought them, and bring upon themselves swift damnation. ² And many will follow their damnable ways, by which the way of truth will be ill spoken of. ³ And through covetousness they will with feigned words make merchandise of you. Their judgment is not far off, and their damnation sleeps not.

⁴ For God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept until the judgment. ⁵ And he did not spare the old world, but saved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, with seven others, and brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. ⁶ And he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, overthrew them, damned them, and made them an example to all who afterwards would live ungodly. ⁷ But just Lot, vexed with the unclean ways of the wicked, he delivered. ⁸ For he, being righteous, and dwelling among them, was vexed in his righteous soul from day to day, with seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds.

⁹ So then, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of affliction, and how to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment, to be punished; ¹⁰ namely those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise authority. Presumptuous they are, and stubborn, and fear not to speak evil of those who are in authority, ¹¹ whereas the angels, who are greater both in power and might, do not bring railing judgment against them before the Lord. ¹² But these, like brute beasts by nature born to be captured and destroyed, speak evil of that which they do not understand, and shall perish through their own destruction, ¹³ and receive the reward of unrighteousness.

They count it pleasure to live deliciously for a season. Spots they are, and vileness, living at pleasure, and in deceptive ways feasting with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls. Hearts they have exercised with covetousness. They are cursed children, ¹⁵ and have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the reward of unrighteousness – ¹⁶ but was rebuked for his iniquity: the tame and dumb beast, speaking with man’s voice, opposed the foolishness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These are wells without water, and clouds carried about by a tempest, for whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. ¹⁸ For when they have spoken the swelling words of vanity, they beguile with wantonness through the lusts of the flesh those who were clean escaped, but now are wrapped in errors. ¹⁹ They promise them liberty, and are themselves the bond-servants of corruption. For by whomever a person is overcome, to him he is in bondage.

²⁰ For if, after they have escaped from the corruption of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and of the Saviour Jesus Christ, they are yet tangled again in it and overcome, then is the latter end worse with them than the beginning. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment given to them. ²² It has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog is turned to his vomit again, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

He exhorts them to beware of such as say the day of the Lord is slack in coming. He urges them to lead a godly life, and to expect the Lord’s coming, whose long delay is salvation, because he would have none lost, but receive all to repentance.

3 This is the second epistle that I now write to you, beloveds, with which I stir up and warn your pure minds, ² to call to remembrance the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets, and also the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.

³ This first understand: that there will come in the last days mockers, who will walk after their own lusts ⁴ and say, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers died, all things continue in the same estate that they were in at the beginning. ⁵ This they are ignorant of (and that willingly): that the heavens a great while ago were, and the earth that was in the water appeared up out of the water by the word of God – ⁶ by which things the world that then was perished, overflowing with water. ⁷ But the heavens and earth which are now, are kept by the same word in store, and reserved for fire at the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸ Dearly beloveds, be not ignorant of this one thing: that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slack to fulfil his promise, as some count slackness, but is patient toward us, and would have no one lost, but would receive all to repentance. ¹⁰ Nevertheless, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which day the heavens shall perish with terrible noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth with the works that are in it shall burn.

¹¹ If all these things will perish, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy living and godliness, ¹² looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens shall perish with fire and the elements shall be consumed with heat? ¹³ Nevertheless, we look for a new heaven and a new earth according to his promise, wherein righteousness dwells.

¹⁴ Therefore, dearly beloveds, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and undefiled. ¹⁵ And count the longsuffering of the Lord to be salvation, even as our dearly beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you – ¹⁶ yea, in almost every epistle speaking of such things, among which are many things hard to understand, which those who are unlearned and unstable pervert, as they do other scriptures, to their own destruction.

¹⁷ You therefore, beloveds, seeing you know it beforehand, beware lest you also be plucked away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness; ¹⁸ but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

To whom be glory both
now and forever.
Amen.

True witness of the everlasting word of God. The blood of Christ is the purgation from sin. No man is without sin.

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life – ² for the life appeared, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us – ³ that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you so that you may have fellowship with us, and so that our fellowship may be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And this we write to you so that your joy may be full.

⁵ And this is the tidings that we have heard from him and declare to you: that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in light, even as he is in light, then we have fellowship with him, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Christ is our advocate. Of true love, and how it is tried.

2 My little children, these things I write to you so that you do not sin. Yet if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the Righteous, ² and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of all the world. 

³ And hereby are we sure that we know him: if we keep his commandments. ⁴ He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ Whoever keeps his word, in him is the love of God perfected in deed. And thereby we know that we are in him. ⁶ He who says he abides in him ought to walk even as he walked.

⁷ Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but that old commandment that you heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you heard from the beginning. ⁸ Again, a new commandment I write to you, a thing that is true in him and also in you. For the darkness is past and the true light now shines. ⁹ He who says that he is in the light and yet hates his brother, is in darkness even until this time. ¹⁰ He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no occasion of evil in him. ¹¹ He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he goes because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹² Babes, I write to you because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake. ¹³ I write to you fathers because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you little children because you know the Father. ¹⁴ I write to you fathers because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome that wicked one.

¹⁵ See that you love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world (as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of goods) is not of the Father, but of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is vanishing away, and the desires of it. But he who fulfils the will of God endures forever.

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists come already. By this we know that it is the last time. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But this happened so that it might appear that they were not of us.

²⁰ And you have an anointing of the Holy Spirit, and you know all things. ²¹ I did not write to you as though you did not know the truth, but as knowing it, and as knowing also that no lie comes of truth. ²² Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is Christ? He is the Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son, the same does not have the Father.

²⁴ Let therefore abide in you that which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will continue in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And the promise that he has promised us is eternal life.

²⁶ This I have written to you concerning those who deceive you.

²⁷ And the anointing that you have received from him dwells in you, and you need not that any man teach you – but as the anointing teaches you all things, and is true, and is no lie, and as it taught you, even so abide therein.

²⁸ And now babes, abide in him, so that when he appears we may be bold, and not be made ashamed before him at his coming. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, know also that he who follows righteousness is born of him.

The singular love of God toward us. How we in response ought to love one another.

3 Behold what love the Father has shown on us, that we should be called the children of God. Because of this, the world does not know you: because it does not know him. ² Dearly beloveds, now we are the children of God. And yet it does not appear what we will be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.

  ⁴ Whoever commits sin, commits unrighteousness also. For sin is unrighteousness. ⁵ And you know that he appeared to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. ⁶ As many as abide in him do not sin. Whoever sins has not seen him, neither has known him.

⁷ Babes, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ He who commits sin is of the devil. For the devil has sinned since the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God appeared: to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Whosoever is born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. ¹⁰ In this are the children of God known, and the children of the devil. Whoever does not work righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not love his brother.

¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: that you should love one another – ¹² not like Cain, who was of the wicked one and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s good.  ¹³ Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother, abides in death. ¹⁵ Whosoever hates his brother is a man-slayer. And you know that no man-slayer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we perceive love: that he gave his life for us. And therefore we also ought to give our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?

¹⁸ My babes, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ For by this we know that we are of the truth, and can quiet our hearts before him. ²⁰ But if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloveds, if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have trust before God – ²² and whatever we ask, we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

²³ And this is his commandment: that we believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave commandment. ²⁴ And he who keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And by this we know that there abides in us of the Spirit that he gave us.

Difference of spirits, and how the Spirit of God may be known from the spirit of error. Of the love of God and of our neighbours.

4 Ye beloveds, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God or not. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you may know the spirit that is of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God. ³ And every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is the spirit of Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he would come. And even now already he is in the world.

⁴ Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them. For greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world, and therefore what they say is of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God, hears us. He who is not of God, does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloveds, let us love one another. For love comes of God. And every one who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love, does not know God. For God is love.

⁹ In this did the love of God for us appear, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. ¹⁰ Herein is love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹ Beloveds, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. ¹² No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us – because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son, who is the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, in him dwells God, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has to us.

God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ In this is the love made perfect in us, so that we may have trust in the day of judgment. For as he is, even so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has painfulness. He who fears is not perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love him because he first loved us. ²⁰ If a person says, I love God, and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: that he who loves God, should love his brother also.

To love God is to keep his commandments. Faith overcomes the world. Everlasting life is in the Son of God. Of the sin unto death.

5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begat, loves also the child who was born of him. ² In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments. ³ This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. ⁴ For all that is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶ This Jesus Christ is he who came by water and blood – not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷ (For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.) ⁸ And there are three which bear witness (in earth): the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one. ⁹ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he testified of his Son. ¹⁰ He who believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself.  He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God gave of his Son. ¹¹ And this is that testimony: that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life.

¹³ These things I have written to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, and so that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. ¹⁴ And this is the trust that we have in him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we will have the petitions that we ask of him.

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, let him ask, and he will give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death, for which I do not say that a person should pray. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not unto death.

¹⁸ We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one does not touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and that the world is altogether set on wickedness. ²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us a mind to know him who is true. And we are in him who is true through his Son Jesus Christ. This same is very God and eternal life.

²¹ Babes, keep yourselves
from idols.
Amen.

He writes to a certain lady, rejoices that her children walk in the truth, exhorts them unto love, warns them to beware of such deceivers as deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and prays them to continue in the doctrine of Christ, and to have nothing to do with those who do not bring this teaching.

¹ The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth – and not only I, but also all who know the truth, ² for the sake of the truth that dwells in us and shall be in us forever.

³ With you be grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

⁴ I rejoiced greatly that I found some of your children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. ⁵ And now I beseech you, dear lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that same which we had from the beginning: that we should love one another. ⁶ And this is the love: that we should walk according to his commandments.

For this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning: walk in him. ⁷ For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. ⁸ Look to yourselves, that we lose not that which we have wrought, but that we may have a full reward. ⁹ Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who endures in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. ¹¹ For he who bids him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds.

¹² I had many things to write to you. Nevertheless, I would rather not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come to you and speak with you mouth to mouth, so that our joy may be full.

¹³ The sons of your elect sister
greet you.
Amen.

He is glad of Gaius, that he walks in the truth. He exhorts them to be loving to the poor Christians in their persecution, and speaks of the unkind dealing of Diotrephes, and the good report of Demetrius.

¹ The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

² Beloved, I wish in all things that you prospered and fared well, even as your soul prospers. ³ I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, how you walk in truth. ⁴ I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

⁵ Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren, and for strangers, ⁶ who bear witness of your love before all the congregation. Which brethren, when you bring them forwards on their journey (as it befits God), you will do well, ⁷ because for his name’s sake they went forth, and took nothing from the Gentiles. ⁸ We therefore ought to receive such brethren, so that we also may be helpers of the truth.

⁹ I wrote to the congregation, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the pre-eminence among them, will not receive us. ¹⁰ And so if I come, I will declare the things he does, scoffing on us with malicious words. And he is not content with that. Not only does he himself not receive the brethren, he also forbids those who would, and thrusts them out of the congregation.

¹¹ Beloved, do not follow that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does well is of God, but he who does evil does not see God.

¹² Demetrius has a good report from all men, and from the truth. Yea and we ourselves also bear witness, and you know that our witness is true.

¹³ I have many things to write, but I do not wish to write with ink and pen to you. ¹⁴ For I trust I will shortly see you, and we shall speak mouth to mouth.

¹⁵ Peace be with you.

The friends send you greetings.
Greet the friends
by name.