Bible in 90 Days

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him demonstrate it by his good way of life, by actions done in the humility that grows out of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor in your hearts bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, don’t boast and attack the truth with lies! ¹⁵ This wisdom is not the kind that comes down from above; on the contrary, it is worldly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where there are jealousy and selfish ambition, there will be disharmony and every foul practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is, first of all, pure, then peaceful, kind, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And peacemakers who sow seed in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

4 What is causing all the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it your desires battling inside you? ² You desire things and don’t have them. You kill, and you are jealous, and you still can’t get them. So you fight and quarrel. The reason you don’t have is that you don’t pray! ³ Or you pray and don’t receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires.

⁴ You unfaithful wives! Don’t you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy! ⁵ Or do you suppose the Scripture speaks in vain when it says that there is a spirit in us which longs to envy? ⁶ But the grace he gives is greater, which is why it says,

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people! ⁹ Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom! ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹ Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge. ¹² There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?

¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit”! ¹⁴ You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If Adonai wants it to happen, we will live” to do this or that. ¹⁶ But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin.

5 Next, a word for the rich: weep and wail over the hardships coming upon you! ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten; ³ your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat up your flesh like fire! This is the acharit-hayamim, and you have been storing up wealth! ⁴ Listen! The wages you have fraudulently withheld from the workers who mowed your fields are calling out against you, and the outcries of those who harvested have reached the ears of Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁵ You have led a life of luxury and self-indulgence here on earth — in a time of slaughter, you have gone on eating to your heart’s content. ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the innocent; they have not withstood you.

⁷ So, brothers, be patient until the Lord returns. See how the farmer waits for the precious “fruit of the earth” — he is patient over it until it receives the fall and spring rains.^{[b] 8} You too, be patient; keep up your courage; for the Lord’s return is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers, so that you won’t come under condemnation — look! the Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ As an example of suffering mistreatment and being patient, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of Adonai. ¹¹ Look, we regard those who persevered as blessed. You have heard of the perseverance of Iyov, and you know what the purpose of Adonai was, that Adonai is very compassionate and merciful.^[c]

¹² Above all, brothers, stop swearing oaths — not “By heaven,” not “By the earth,” and not by any other formula; rather, let your “Yes” be simply “Yes” and your “No” simply “No,” so that you won’t fall under condemnation.

¹³ Is someone among you in trouble? He should pray. Is someone feeling good? He should sing songs of praise.

¹⁴ Is someone among you ill? He should call for the elders of the congregation. They will pray for him and rub olive oil on him in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ The prayer offered with trust will heal the one who is ill — the Lord will restore his health; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Eliyahu was only a human being like us; yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and no rain fell on the Land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the Land produced its crops.

¹⁹ My brothers, if one of you wanders from the truth, and someone causes him to return, ²⁰ you should know that whoever turns a sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many sins.^[d]

1 From: Kefa, an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah

To: God’s chosen people, living as aliens in the Diaspora — in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bythinia — ² chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obeying Yeshua the Messiah and for sprinkling with his blood:

Grace and shalom be yours in full measure.

³ Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who, in keeping with his great mercy, has caused us, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah from the dead, to be born again to a living hope, ⁴ to an inheritance that cannot decay, spoil or fade, kept safe for you in heaven. ⁵ Meanwhile, through trusting, you are being protected by God’s power for a deliverance ready to be revealed at the Last Time. ⁶ Rejoice in this, even though for a little while you may have to experience grief in various trials. ⁷ Even gold is tested for genuineness by fire. The purpose of these trials is so that your trust’s genuineness, which is far more valuable than perishable gold, will be judged worthy of praise, glory and honor at the revealing of Yeshua the Messiah.

⁸ Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words. ⁹ And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it. ¹¹ They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah’s sufferings and the glorious things to follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that their service when they spoke about these things was not for their own benefit, but for yours. And these same things have now been proclaimed to you by those who communicated the Good News to you through the Ruach HaKodesh sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things!

¹³ Therefore, get your minds ready for work, keep yourselves under control, and fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed. ¹⁴ As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant. ¹⁵ On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life; ¹⁶ since the Tanakh says,

“You are to be holy because I am holy.”^[e]

¹⁷ Also, if you are addressing as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s actions, you should live out your temporary stay on earth in fear. ¹⁸ You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold; ¹⁹ on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot. ²⁰ God knew him before the founding of the universe, but revealed him in the acharit-hayamim for your sakes. ²¹ Through him you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; so that your trust and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love each other deeply, with all your heart. ²³ You have been born again not from some seed that will decay, but from one that cannot decay, through the living Word of God that lasts forever. ²⁴ For

Moreover, this Word is the Good News which has been proclaimed to you.

2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, of all deceit, hypocrisy and envy, and of all the ways there are of speaking against people; ² and be like newborn babies, thirsty for the pure milk of the Word; so that by it, you may grow up into deliverance. ³ For you have tasted that Adonai is good.^[g]

⁴ As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him, ⁵ you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be cohanim set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah. ⁶ This is why the Tanakh says,

⁷ Now to you who keep trusting, he is precious. But to those who are not trusting,

⁸ also he is

They are stumbling at the Word, disobeying it — as had been planned. ⁹ But you are a chosen people,^[k] the King’s cohanim,^[l] a holy nation,^[m] a people for God to possess!^[n] Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; before, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.^[o]

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents^[p] not to give in to the desires of your old nature, which keep warring against you; ¹² but to live such good lives among the pagans that even though they now speak against you as evil-doers, they will, as a result of seeing your good actions, give glory to God on the Day of his coming. ¹³ For the sake of the Lord, submit yourselves to every human authority — whether to the emperor as being supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as being sent by him to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do what is good. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that your doing good should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ¹⁶ Submit as people who are free, but not letting your freedom serve as an excuse for evil; rather, submit as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Be respectful to all — keep loving the brotherhood, fearing God and honoring the emperor.

¹⁸ Household servants, submit yourselves to your masters, showing them full respect — and not only those who are kind and considerate, but also those who are harsh. ¹⁹ For it is a grace when someone, because he is mindful of God, bears up under the pain of undeserved punishment. ²⁰ For what credit is there in bearing up under a beating you deserve for doing something wrong? But if you bear up under punishment, even though you have done what is right, God looks on it with favor. ²¹ Indeed, this is what you were called to; because the Messiah too suffered, on your behalf, leaving an example so that you should follow in his steps.

²³ When he was insulted, he didn’t retaliate with insults; when he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but handed them over to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins^[r] in his body on the stake,^[s] so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness — by his wounds you were healed.^{[t] 25} For you used to be like sheep gone astray, but now you have turned to^[u] the Shepherd, who watches over you.

3 In the same way, wives, submit to your husbands; so that even if some of them do not believe the Word, they will be won over by your conduct, without your saying anything, ² as they see your respectful and pure behavior. ³ Your beauty should not consist in externals such as fancy hairstyles, gold jewelry or what you wear; ⁴ rather, let it be the inner character of your heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. In God’s sight this is of great value. ⁵ This is how the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves and submit to their husbands, ⁶ the way Sarah obeyed Avraham, honoring him as her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not succumb to fear.

⁷ You husbands, likewise, conduct your married lives with understanding. Although your wife may be weaker physically, you should respect her as a fellow-heir of the gift of Life. If you don’t, your prayers will be blocked.

⁸ Finally, all of you, be one in mind and feeling; love as brothers; and be compassionate and humble-minded, ⁹ not repaying evil with evil or insult with insult, but, on the contrary, with blessing. For it is to this that you have been called, so that you may receive a blessing. ¹⁰ For

¹³ For who will hurt you if you become zealots for what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you do suffer for being righteous, you are blessed! Moreover, don’t fear what they fear or be disturbed, ¹⁵ but treat the Messiah as holy, as Lord in your hearts;^[w] while remaining always ready to give a reasoned answer to anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you — yet with humility and fear, ¹⁶ keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are spoken against, those who abuse the good behavior flowing from your union with the Messiah may be put to shame. ¹⁷ For if God has in fact willed that you should suffer, it is better that you suffer for doing what is good than for doing what is evil.

¹⁸ For the Messiah himself died for sins, once and for all, a righteous person on behalf of unrighteous people, so that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but brought to life by the Spirit; ¹⁹ and in this form he went and made a proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, ²⁰ to those who were disobedient long ago, in the days of Noach, when God waited patiently during the building of the ark, in which a few people — to be specific, eight — were delivered by means of water. ²¹ This also prefigures what delivers us now, the water of immersion, which is not the removal of dirt from the body, but one’s pledge to keep a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah. ²² He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God,^[x] with angels, authorities and powers subject to him.

4 Therefore, since the Messiah suffered physically, you too are to arm yourselves with the same attitude. For whoever has suffered physically is finished with sin, ² with the result that he lives the rest of his earthly life no longer controlled by human desires, but by God’s will. ³ For you have spent enough time already living the way the pagans want you to live — in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and forbidden idol-worship. ⁴ They think it strange that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, and so they heap insults on you. ⁵ But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ This is why he was proclaimed to those who have died; it was so that, although physically they would receive the judgment common to all humanity, they might live by the Spirit in the way that God has provided.

⁷ The accomplishing of the goal of all things is close at hand. Therefore, keep alert and self-controlled, so that you can pray. ⁸ More than anything, keep loving each other actively; because love covers many sins.^{[y] 9} Welcome one another into your homes without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each one has received some spiritual gift, he should use it to serve others, like good managers of God’s many-sided grace — ¹¹ if someone speaks, let him speak God’s words; if someone serves, let him do so out of strength that God supplies; so that in everything God may be glorified through Yeshua the Messiah — to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

¹² Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you. ¹³ Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when his Sh’khinah is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Sh’khinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you! ¹⁵ Let none of you suffer for being a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler in other people’s affairs. ¹⁶ But if anyone suffers for being Messianic, let him not be ashamed; but let him bring glory to God by the way he bears this name. ¹⁷ For the time has come for the judgment to begin. It begins with the household of God; and if it starts with us, what will the outcome be for those who are disobeying God’s Good News? —

¹⁹ So let those who are suffering according to God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator by continuing to do what is good.

5 Therefore, I urge the congregation leaders among you, as a fellow-leader and witness to the Messiah’s sufferings, as well as a sharer in the glory to be revealed: ² shepherd the flock of God that is in your care, exercising oversight not out of constraint, but willingly, as God wants; and not out of a desire for dishonest gain, but with enthusiasm; ³ also not as machers domineering over those in your care, but as people who become examples to the flock. ⁴ Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive glory as your unfading crown.

⁵ Likewise, you who are less experienced, submit to leaders. Further, all of you should clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because

⁶ Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up. ⁷ Throw all your anxieties upon him, because he cares about you.

⁸ Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Stand against him, firm in your trust, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering. ¹⁰ You will have to suffer only a little while; after that, God, who is full of grace, the one who called you to his eternal glory in union with the Messiah, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you and make you firm. ¹¹ To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

¹² Through Sila, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written you briefly, encouraging you and giving my witness that this is God’s true grace. Stand firm in it!

¹³ Your sister congregation in Bavel, chosen along with you, sends greetings to you, as does my son Mark. ¹⁴ Greet each other with a kiss of love.

“Shalom aleikhem!” to all who belong to the Messiah.

1 From: Shim‘on Kefa, a slave and emissary of Yeshua the Messiah

To: Those who, through the righteousness of our God and of our Deliverer Yeshua the Messiah, have been given the same kind of trust as ours:

² May grace and shalom be yours in full measure, as you come to a full knowledge of God and Yeshua our Lord.

³ God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to his own glory and goodness. ⁴ By these he has given us valuable and superlatively great promises, so that through them you might come to share in God’s nature and escape the corruption which evil desires have brought into the world.

⁵ For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, ⁶ knowledge with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with godliness, ⁷ godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if you have these qualities in abundance, they keep you from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ⁹ Indeed, whoever lacks them is blind, so shortsighted that he forgets that his past sins have been washed away. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, try even harder to make your being called and chosen a certainty. For if you keep doing this, you will never stumble. ¹¹ Thus you will be generously supplied with everything you need to enter the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah.

¹² For this reason, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you already have. ¹³ And I consider it right to keep stirring you up with reminders, as long as I am in the tent of this body. ¹⁴ I know that I will soon lay aside this tent of mine, as our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has made clear to me. ¹⁵ And I will do my best to see that after my exodus, you will be able to remember these things at all times.

¹⁶ For when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, we did not rely on cunningly contrived myths. On the contrary, we saw his majesty with our own eyes. ¹⁷ For we were there when he received honor and glory from God the Father; and the voice came to him from the grandeur of the Sh’khinah, saying, “This is my son, whom I love; I am well pleased with him!” ¹⁸ We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹ Yes, we have the prophetic Word made very certain. You will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark, murky place, until the Day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ First of all, understand this: no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted by an individual on his own; ²¹ for never has a prophecy come as a result of human willing — on the contrary, people moved by the Ruach HaKodesh spoke a message from God.

2 But among the people there were also false prophets, just as there will be false teachers among you. Under false pretenses they will introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and thus bring on themselves swift destruction. ² Many will follow their debaucheries; and because of them, the true Way will be maligned. ³ In their greed they will exploit you with fabricated stories.

Their punishment, decreed long ago, is not idle; their destruction is not asleep! ⁴ For God did not spare the angels who sinned; on the contrary, he put them in gloomy dungeons lower than Sh’ol to be held for judgment. ⁵ And he did not spare the ancient world; on the contrary, he preserved Noach, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, and brought the Flood upon a world of ungodly people. ⁶ And he condemned the cities of S’dom and ‘Amora, reducing them to ashes and ruin, as a warning to those in the future who would live ungodly lives; ⁷ but he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the debauchery of those unprincipled people; ⁸ for the wicked deeds which that righteous man saw and heard, as he lived among them, tormented his righteous heart day after day. ⁹ So the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and how to hold the wicked until the Day of Judgment while continuing to punish them, ¹⁰ especially those who follow their old natures in lust for filth and who despise authority.

Presumptuous and self-willed, these false teachers do not tremble at insulting angelic beings; ¹¹ whereas angels, though stronger and more powerful, do not bring before the Lord an insulting charge against them. ¹² But these people, acting without thinking, like animals without reason, born to be captured and destroyed, insult things about which they have no knowledge. When they are destroyed, their destruction will be total — ¹³ they will be paid back harm as wages for the harm they are doing.

Their idea of pleasure is carousing in broad daylight; they are spots and defects reveling in their deceptions as they share meals with you — ¹⁴ for they have eyes always on the lookout for a woman who will commit adultery, eyes that never stop sinning; and they have a heart that has exercised itself in greed; so that they seduce unstable people. What a cursed brood!

¹⁵ These people have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Bil‘am Ben-B‘or, who loved the wages of doing harm ¹⁶ but was rebuked for his sin — a dumb beast of burden spoke out with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity! ¹⁷ Waterless springs they are, mists driven by a gust of wind; for them has been reserved the blackest darkness. ¹⁸ Mouthing grandiosities of nothingness, they play on the desires of the old nature, in order to seduce with debaucheries people who have just begun to escape from those whose way of life is wrong.

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a person is slave to whatever has defeated him. ²⁰ Indeed, if they have once escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah, and then have again become entangled and defeated by them, their latter condition has become worse than their former. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the Way of righteousness than, fully knowing, to turn from the holy command delivered to them. ²² What has happened to them accords with the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit.”^[ab] Yes, “The pig washed itself, only to wallow in the mud!”

3 Dear friends, I am writing you now this second letter; and in both letters I am trying to arouse you to wholesome thinking by means of reminders; ² so that you will keep in mind the predictions of the holy prophets and the command given by the Lord and Deliverer through your emissaries.

³ First, understand this: during the Last Days, scoffers will come, following their own desires ⁴ and asking, “Where is this promised ‘coming’ of his? For our fathers have died, and everything goes on just as it has since the beginning of creation.” ⁵ But, wanting so much to be right about this, they overlook the fact that it was by God’s Word that long ago there were heavens, and there was land which arose out of water and existed between the waters, ⁶ and that by means of these things the world of that time was flooded with water and destroyed. ⁷ It is by that same Word that the present heavens and earth, having been preserved, are being kept for fire until the Day of Judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

⁸ Moreover, dear friends, do not ignore this: with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day^{[ac] 9} The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some people think of slowness; on the contrary, he is patient with you; for it is not his purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that everyone should turn from his sins. ¹⁰ However, the Day of the Lord will come “like a thief.” On that Day the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.

¹¹ Since everything is going to be destroyed like this, what kind of people should you be? You should lead holy and godly lives, ¹² as you wait for the Day of God and work to hasten its coming. That Day will bring on the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt from the heat; ¹³ but we, following along with his promise, wait for new heavens and a new earth,^[ad] in which righteousness will be at home. ¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, as you look for these things, do everything you can to be found by him without spot or defect and at peace. ¹⁵ And think of our Lord’s patience as deliverance, just as our dear brother Sha’ul also wrote you, following the wisdom God gave him. ¹⁶ Indeed, he speaks about these things in all his letters. They contain some things that are hard to understand, things which the uninstructed and unstable distort, to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

¹⁷ But you, dear friends, since you know this in advance, guard yourselves; so that you will not be led away by the errors of the wicked and fall from your own secure position. ¹⁸ And keep growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory, both now and forever! Amen.

⁵ And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him — none!

⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth. ⁷ But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we acknowledge our sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing.

¹⁰ If we claim we have not been sinning, we are making him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us.

2 My children, I am writing you these things so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik, who pleads our cause with the Father. ² Also, he is the kapparah for our sins — and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

³ The way we can be sure we know him is if we are obeying his commands. ⁴ Anyone who says, “I know him,” but isn’t obeying his commands is a liar — the truth is not in him. ⁵ But if someone keeps doing what he says, then truly love for God has been brought to its goal in him. This is how we are sure that we are united with him. ⁶ A person who claims to be continuing in union with him ought to conduct his life the way he did.

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command. On the contrary, it is an old command, which you have had from the beginning; the old command is the message which you have heard before. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command, and its reality is seen both in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹ Anyone who claims to be in this light while hating his brother is still in the dark. ¹⁰ The person who keeps loving his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him that could make him trip. ¹¹ But the person who hates his brother is in the dark — yes, he is walking in the dark, and he doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, then love for the Father is not in him; ¹⁶ because all the things of the world — the desires of the old nature, the desires of the eyes, and the pretensions of life — are not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, along with its desires. But whoever does God’s will remains forever.

¹⁸ Children, this is the Last Hour. You have heard that an Anti-Messiah is coming; and in fact, many anti-Messiahs have arisen now — which is how we know that this is the Last Hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they weren’t part of us; for had they been part of us, they would have remained with us.

²⁰ But you have received the Messiah’s anointing from HaKadosh, and you know all this. ²¹ It is not because you don’t know the truth that I have written to you, but because you do know it, and because no lie has its origin in the truth. ²² Who is a liar at all, if not the person who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? Such a person is an anti-Messiah — he is denying the Father and the Son. ²³ Everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father, but the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well. ²⁴ Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in union with both the Son and the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he has promised us: eternal life.

²⁶ I have written you these things about the people who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷ As for you, the Messianic anointing you received from the Father remains in you, so that you have no need for anyone to teach you. On the contrary, as his Messianic anointing continues to teach you about all things, and is true, not a counterfeit, so, just as he taught you, remain united with him.

²⁸ And now, children, remain united with him; so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you should also know that he is the Father of everyone who does what is right.

3 See what love the Father has lavished on us in letting us be called God’s children! For that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it has not known him. ² Dear friends, we are God’s children now; and it has not yet been made clear what we will become. We do know that when he appears, we will be like him; because we will see him as he really is.

³ And everyone who has this hope in him continues purifying himself, since God is pure. ⁴ Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and that there is no sin in him. ⁶ So no one who remains united with him continues sinning; everyone who does continue sinning has neither seen him nor known him.

⁷ Children, don’t let anyone deceive you — it is the person that keeps on doing what is right who is righteous, just as God is righteous. ⁸ The person who keeps on sinning is from the Adversary, because from the very beginning the Adversary has kept on sinning. It was for this very reason that the Son of God appeared, to destroy these doings of the Adversary. ⁹ No one who has God as his Father keeps on sinning, because the seed planted by God remains in him. That is, he cannot continue sinning, because he has God as his Father. ¹⁰ Here is how one can distinguish clearly between God’s children and those of the Adversary: everyone who does not continue doing what is right is not from God.

Likewise, anyone who fails to keep loving his brother is not from God. ¹¹ For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning: that we should love each other ¹² and not be like Kayin, who was from the Evil One and murdered his own brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Don’t be amazed, brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We, for our part, know that we have passed from death to life because we keep loving the brothers. The person who fails to keep on loving is still under the power of death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

¹⁶ The way that we have come to know love is through his having laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers! ¹⁷ If someone has worldly possessions and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can he be loving God? ¹⁸ Children, let us love not with words and talk, but with actions and in reality!

¹⁹ Here is how we will know that we are from the truth and will set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ if our hearts know something against us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts know nothing against us, we have confidence in approaching God; ²² then, whatever we ask for, we receive from him; because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.

²³ This is his command: that we are to trust in the person and power of his Son Yeshua the Messiah and to keep loving one another, just as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who obey his commands remain united with him and he with them.

Here is how we know that he remains united with us: by the Spirit whom he gave us.

4 Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit. On the contrary, test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² Here is how you recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit which acknowledges that Yeshua the Messiah came as a human being is from God, ³ and every spirit which does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God — in fact, this is the spirit of the Anti-Messiah. You have heard that he is coming. Well, he’s here now, in the world already!

⁴ You, children, are from God and have overcome the false prophets, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world’s viewpoint; and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. ⁸ Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. ⁹ Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. ¹⁰ Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.

¹¹ Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us. ¹³ Here is how we know that we remain united with him and he with us: he has given to us from his own Spirit. ¹⁴ Moreover, we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as Deliverer of the world. ¹⁵ If someone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God remains united with him, and he with God. ¹⁶ Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.

¹⁷ Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.

¹⁹ We ourselves love now because he loved us first. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.

5 Everyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah has God as his father, and everyone who loves a father loves his offspring too. ² Here is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God, we also do what he commands. ³ For loving God means obeying his commands. Moreover, his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ because everything which has God as its Father overcomes the world. And this is what victoriously overcomes the world: our trust. ⁵ Who does overcome the world if not the person who believes that Yeshua is the Son of God?

⁶ He is the one who came by means of water and blood, Yeshua the Messiah — not with water only, but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ There are three witnesses — ⁸ the Spirit, the water and the blood — and these three are in agreement. ⁹ If we accept human witness, God’s witness is stronger, because it is the witness which God has given about his Son. ¹⁰ Those who keep trusting in the Son of God have this witness in them. Those who do not keep trusting God have made him out to be a liar, because they have not trusted in the witness which God has given about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the witness: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Those who have the Son have the life; those who do not have the Son of God do not have the life. ¹³ I have written you these things so that you may know that you have eternal life — you who keep trusting in the person and power of the Son of God.

¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in his presence: if we ask anything that accords with his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — then we know that we have what we have asked from him.

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask; and God will give him life for those whose sinning does not lead to death. There is sin that does lead to death; I am not saying he should pray about that. ¹⁷ All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸ We know that everyone who has God as his Father does not go on sinning; on the contrary, the Son born of God protects him, and the Evil One does not touch him.

¹⁹ We know that we are from God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment, so that we may know who is genuine; moreover, we are united with the One who is genuine, united with his Son Yeshua the Messiah. He is the genuine God and eternal life.

²¹ Children, guard yourselves against false gods!

¹ From: The Elder

To: The chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth — and not only I but also all who have come to know the truth — ² because of the Truth which remains united with us and will be with us forever:

³ Grace, mercy and shalom will be with us from God the Father and from Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

⁴ I was very happy when I found some of your children living in truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am requesting that we love one another — not as if this were a new command I am writing you, for it is the one which we have had from the beginning. ⁶ Moreover, love is this: that we should live according to his commands. This is the command, as you people have heard from the beginning; live by it!

⁷ For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not acknowledge Yeshua the Messiah’s coming as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and an anti-Messiah. ⁸ Watch yourselves, so that you won’t lose what you have worked for, but will receive your full reward. ⁹ Everyone who goes ahead and does not remain true to what the Messiah has taught does not have God. Those who remain true to his teaching have both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If someone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, don’t welcome him into your home. Don’t even say, “Shalom!” to him; ¹¹ for the person who says, “Shalom!” to him shares in his evil deeds.

¹² Although I have much to write you people, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come and see you and to talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³ The children of your chosen sister send you their greetings.

¹ From: The Elder

To: Dear Gaius, whom I love in truth:

² Dear friend, I am praying that everything prosper with you and that you be in good health, as I know you are prospering spiritually. ³ For I was so happy when some brothers came and testified how faithful you are to the truth, as you continue living in the truth. ⁴ Nothing gives me greater joy than hearing that my children are living in the truth.

⁵ Dear friend, you are faithful in all the work you are doing for the brothers, even when they are strangers to you. ⁶ They have testified to your love in front of the congregation. You will be doing well if you send them on their way in a manner worthy of God, ⁷ since it was for the sake of HaShem that they went out without accepting anything from the Goyim. ⁸ It is we, therefore, who should support such people; so that we may share in their work for the truth.

⁹ I wrote something to the congregation; but Diotrephes, who likes to be the macher among them, doesn’t recognize our authority. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will bring up everything he is doing, including his spiteful and groundless gossip about us. And as if that weren’t enough for him, he refuses to recognize the brothers’ authority either; moreover, he stops those who want to do so and tries to drive them out of the congregation!

¹¹ Dear friend, don’t imitate the bad, but the good. Those who do what is good are from God; those who do what is bad are not from God.

¹² Everyone speaks well of Demetrius, and so does the truth itself. We vouch for him, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³ I have much to write you, but I don’t want to write with pen and ink; ¹⁴ however, I am hoping to see you very soon, and we will speak face to face.

Shalom to you. Your friends send you their greetings. Greet each of our friends by name.