Bible in 90 Days

Live Wisely

¹³ Do any of you have wisdom and insight? Show this by living the right way with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and filled with self-centered ambition, don’t brag. Don’t say that you are wise when it isn’t true. ¹⁵ That kind of wisdom doesn’t come from above. It belongs to this world. It is self-centered and demonic. ¹⁶ Wherever there is jealousy and rivalry, there is disorder and every kind of evil.

¹⁷ However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure. Then it is peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good deeds, impartial, and sincere. ¹⁸ A harvest that has God’s approval comes from the peace planted by peacemakers.

Stop Fighting with Each Other

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren’t they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you commit murder. You’re determined to have things, but you can’t get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You don’t have the things you want, because you don’t pray for them. ³ When you pray for things, you don’t get them because you want them for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.

⁴ You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that love for this ⌞evil⌟ world is hatred toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. ⁵ Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, “The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own.”

⁶ But God shows us even more kindness.^[a] Scripture says,

⁷ So place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters. ⁹ Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence. Then he will give you a high position.

Stop Slandering Each Other

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, stop slandering each other. Those who slander and judge other believers slander and judge God’s laws. If you judge God’s teachings, you are no longer following them. Instead, you are judging them. ¹² There is only one who creates laws and judges on the basis of them. He is able to save or destroy you. So who are you to judge your neighbor?

Don’t Brag about Your Plans for the Future

¹³ Pay attention to this! You’re saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.” ¹⁴ You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears. ¹⁵ Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.” ¹⁶ However, you brag because you’re arrogant. All such bragging is evil.

¹⁷ Whoever knows what is right but doesn’t do it is sinning.

Advice to Rich People

5 Pay attention to this if you’re rich. Cry and moan about the misery that is coming to you. ² Your riches have decayed, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be used as evidence against you. Like fire, it will destroy your body.

You have stored up riches in these last days. ⁴ The wages you refused to pay the people who harvested your fields shout ⌞to God⌟ against you. The Lord of Armies has heard the cries of those who gather the crops. ⁵ You have lived in luxury and pleasure here on earth. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered people who have God’s approval, even though they didn’t resist you.

Be Patient

⁷ Brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord comes again. See how farmers wait for their precious crops to grow. They wait patiently for fall and spring rains. ⁸ You, too, must be patient. Don’t give up hope. The Lord will soon be here. ⁹ Brothers and sisters, stop complaining about each other, or you will be condemned. Realize that the judge is standing at the door.

¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, follow the example of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. They were patient when they suffered unjustly. ¹¹ We consider those who endure to be blessed. You have heard about Job’s endurance. You saw that the Lord ended Job’s suffering because the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Don’t Take Oaths

¹² Above all things, my brothers and sisters, do not take an oath on anything in heaven or on earth. Do not take any oath. If you mean yes, say yes. If you mean no, say no. Do this so that you won’t be condemned.

Prayer Is Powerful

¹³ If any of you are having trouble, pray. If you are happy, sing psalms. ¹⁴ If you are sick, call for the church leaders. Have them pray for you and anoint you with olive oil ^[b] in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ (Prayers offered in faith will save those who are sick, and the Lord will cure them.) If you have sinned, you will be forgiven. ¹⁶ So admit your sins to each other, and pray for each other so that you will be healed.

Prayers offered by those who have God’s approval are effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was human like us. Yet, when he prayed that it wouldn’t rain, no rain fell on the ground for three-and-a-half years. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again. It rained, and the ground produced crops.

Help Those Who Have Wandered Away from the Truth

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you wanders from the truth, someone can bring that person back. ²⁰ Realize that whoever brings a sinner back from the error of his ways will save him from death, and many sins will be forgiven.

Greeting

1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To God’s chosen people who are temporary residents ⌞in the world⌟ and are scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. ² God the Father knew you long ago and chose you to live holy lives with the Spirit’s help so that you are obedient to Jesus Christ and are sprinkled with his blood.

May good will ^[c] and peace fill your lives!

Faith in Christ Brings You Joy

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! God has given us a new birth because of his great mercy. We have been born into a new life that has a confidence which is alive because Jesus Christ has come back to life. ⁴ We have been born into a new life which has an inheritance that can’t be destroyed or corrupted and can’t fade away. That inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ since you are guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

⁶ You are extremely happy about these things, even though you have to suffer different kinds of trouble for a little while now. ⁷ The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again.

⁸ Although you have never seen Christ, you love him. You don’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are extremely happy with joy and praise that can hardly be expressed in words ⁹ as you obtain the salvation that is the goal of your faith.

¹⁰ The prophets carefully researched and investigated this salvation. Long ago they spoke about God’s kindness ^[d] that would come to you. ¹¹ So they tried to find out what time or situation the Spirit of Christ kept referring to whenever he predicted Christ’s sufferings and the glory that would follow. ¹² God revealed to the prophets that the things they had spoken were not for their own benefit but for yours. What the prophets had spoken, the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven, has now made known to you by those who spread the Good News among you. These are things that even the angels want to look into.

Live Holy Lives

¹³ Therefore, your minds must be clear and ready for action. Place your confidence completely in what God’s kindness will bring you when Jesus Christ appears again. ¹⁴ Because you are children who obey God, don’t live the kind of lives you once lived. Once you lived to satisfy your desires because you didn’t know any better. ¹⁵ But because the God who called you is holy, you must be holy in every aspect of your life. ¹⁶ Scripture says, “Be holy, because I am holy.” ¹⁷ So if you call God your Father, live your time as temporary residents on earth in fear. He is the God who judges all people by what they have done, and he doesn’t play favorites. ¹⁸ Realize that you weren’t set free from the worthless life handed down to you from your ancestors by a payment of silver or gold which can be destroyed. ¹⁹ Rather, the payment that freed you was the precious blood of Christ, the lamb with no defects or imperfections. ²⁰ He is the lamb who was known long ago before the world existed, but for your good he became publicly known in the last period of time. ²¹ Through him you believe in God who brought Christ back to life and gave him glory. So your faith and confidence are in God.

Love Each Other

²² Love each other with a warm love that comes from the heart. After all, you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. As a result you have a sincere love for each other. ²³ You have been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God’s everlasting word that can’t be destroyed. That’s why ⌞Scripture says⌟,

This word is the Good News that was told to you.

Live as God’s Chosen People

2 So get rid of every kind of evil, every kind of deception, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. ² Desire God’s pure word as newborn babies desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation. ³ Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good!

⁴ You are coming to Christ, the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God. ⁵ You come to him as living stones, a spiritual house that is being built into a holy priesthood. So offer spiritual sacrifices that God accepts through Jesus Christ. ⁶ That is why Scripture says,

⁷ This honor belongs to those who believe. But to those who don’t believe:

The people tripped over the word because they refused to believe it. Therefore, this is how they ended up.

⁹ However, you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people who belong to God. You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not God’s people, but now you are. Once you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.

¹¹ Dear friends, since you are foreigners and temporary residents ⌞in the world⌟, I’m encouraging you to keep away from the desires of your corrupt nature. These desires constantly attack you. ¹² Live decent lives among unbelievers. Then, although they ridicule you as if you were doing wrong while they are watching you do good things, they will praise God on the day he comes to help you.

Respect the Authority of Others

¹³ Place yourselves under the authority of human governments to please the Lord. Obey the emperor. He holds the highest position of authority. ¹⁴ Also obey governors. They are people the emperor has sent to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but don’t hide behind your freedom when you do evil. Instead, use your freedom to serve God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love your brothers and sisters in the faith. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

¹⁸ Slaves, place yourselves under the authority of your owners and show them complete respect. Obey not only those owners who are good and kind, but also those who are unfair. ¹⁹ God is pleased if a person is aware of him while enduring the pains of unjust suffering. ²⁰ What credit do you deserve if you endure a beating for doing something wrong? But if you endure suffering for doing something good, God is pleased with you.

²¹ God called you to endure suffering because Christ suffered for you. He left you an example so that you could follow in his footsteps. ²² Christ never committed any sin. He never spoke deceitfully. ²³ Christ never verbally abused those who verbally abused him. When he suffered, he didn’t make any threats but left everything to the one who judges fairly. ²⁴ Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so that freed from our sins, we could live a life that has God’s approval. His wounds have healed you. ²⁵ You were like lost sheep. Now you have come back to the shepherd and bishop of your lives.

3 Wives, in a similar way, place yourselves under your husbands’ authority. Some husbands may not obey God’s word. Their wives could win these men ⌞for Christ⌟ by the way they live without saying anything. ² Their husbands would see how pure and reverent their lives are.

³ Wives must not let their beauty be something external. Beauty doesn’t come from hairstyles, gold jewelry, or clothes. ⁴ Rather, beauty is something internal that can’t be destroyed. Beauty expresses itself in a gentle and quiet attitude which God considers precious. ⁵ After all, this is how holy women who had confidence in God expressed their beauty in the past. They placed themselves under their husbands’ authority ⁶ as Sarah did. Sarah obeyed Abraham and spoke to him respectfully. You became Sarah’s daughters by not letting anything make you afraid to do good.

⁷ Husbands, in a similar way, live with your wives with understanding since they are weaker than you are. Honor your wives as those who share God’s life-giving kindness ^[e] so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.

Dedicate Your Lives to Jesus

⁸ Finally, everyone must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love each other, have compassion, and be humble. ⁹ Don’t pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you, or ridicule those who ridicule you. Instead, bless them, because you were called to inherit a blessing.

¹³ Who will harm you if you are devoted to doing what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you suffer for doing what God approves, you are blessed. Don’t be afraid of those who want to harm you. Don’t get upset. ¹⁵ But dedicate your lives to Christ as Lord. Always be ready to defend your confidence ⌞in God⌟ when anyone asks you to explain it. However, make your defense with gentleness and respect. ¹⁶ Keep your conscience clear. Then those who treat the good Christian life you live with contempt will feel ashamed that they have ridiculed you. ¹⁷ After all, if it is God’s will, it’s better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong.

¹⁸ This is true because Christ suffered for our sins once. He was an innocent person, but he suffered for guilty people so that he could bring you to God. His body was put to death, but he was brought to life through his spirit. ¹⁹ In it he also went to proclaim his victory to the spirits kept in prison. ²⁰ They are like those who disobeyed long ago in the days of Noah when God waited patiently while Noah built the ship. In this ship a few people—eight in all—were saved by water. ²¹ Baptism, which is like that water, now saves you. Baptism doesn’t save by removing dirt from the body. Rather, baptism is a request to God for a clear conscience. It saves you through Jesus Christ, who came back from death to life. ²² Now Christ has gone to heaven where he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the throne. Angels, rulers, and powers have been placed under his authority.

4 Since Christ has suffered physically, take the same attitude that he had. (A person who has suffered physically no longer sins.) ² That way you won’t be guided by sinful human desires as you live the rest of your lives on earth. Instead, you will be guided by what God wants you to do. ³ You spent enough time in the past doing what unbelievers like to do. You were promiscuous, had sinful desires, got drunk, went to wild parties, and took part in the forbidden worship of false gods. ⁴ Unbelievers insult you now because they are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of wild living. ⁵ They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ After all, the Good News was told to people like that, although they are now dead. It was told to them so that they could be judged like humans in their earthly lives and live like God in their spiritual lives.

⁷ The end of everything is near. Therefore, practice self-control, and keep your minds clear so that you can pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other warmly, because love covers many sins. ⁹ Welcome each other as guests without complaining. ¹⁰ Each of you as a good manager must use the gift that God has given you to serve others. ¹¹ Whoever speaks must speak God’s words. Whoever serves must serve with the strength God supplies so that in every way God receives glory through Jesus Christ. Glory and power belong to Jesus Christ forever and ever! Amen.

Share Christ’s Sufferings

¹² Dear friends, don’t be surprised by the fiery troubles that are coming in order to test you. Don’t feel as though something strange is happening to you, ¹³ but be happy as you share Christ’s sufferings. Then you will also be full of joy when he appears again in his glory. ¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory—the Spirit of God—is resting on you.

¹⁵ If you suffer, you shouldn’t suffer for being a murderer, thief, criminal, or troublemaker. ¹⁶ If you suffer for being a Christian, don’t feel ashamed, but praise God for being called that name. ¹⁷ The time has come for the judgment to begin, and it will begin with God’s family. If it starts with us, what will be the end for those who refuse to obey the Good News of God? ¹⁸ If it’s hard for the person who has God’s approval to be saved, what will happen to the godless sinner? ¹⁹ Those who suffer because that is God’s will for them must entrust themselves to a faithful creator and continue to do what is good.

Instructions for Spiritual Leaders

5 I appeal to your spiritual leaders.^[f] I make this appeal as a spiritual leader who also witnessed Christ’s sufferings and will share in the glory that will be revealed. ² Be shepherds over the flock God has entrusted to you. Watch over it as God does: Don’t do this because you have to, but because you want to. Don’t do it out of greed, but out of a desire to serve. ³ Don’t be rulers over the people entrusted to you, but be examples for the flock to follow. ⁴ Then, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

Instructions for Christians

⁵ Young people, in a similar way, place yourselves under the authority of spiritual leaders.

Furthermore, all of you must serve each other with humility, because God opposes the arrogant but favors the humble. ⁶ Be humbled by God’s power so that when the right time comes he will honor you.

⁷ Turn all your anxiety over to God because he cares for you. ⁸ Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour. ⁹ Be firm in the faith and resist him, knowing that other believers throughout the world are going through the same kind of suffering. ¹⁰ God, who shows you his kindness ^[g] and who has called you through Christ Jesus to his eternal glory, will restore you, strengthen you, make you strong, and support you as you suffer for a little while. ¹¹ Power belongs to him forever. Amen.

Farewell

¹² I’ve written this short letter to you and I’m sending it by Silvanus, whom I regard as a faithful brother. I’ve written to encourage you and to testify that this is God’s genuine good will.^[h] Remain firmly established in it!

¹³ Your sister church in Babylon, chosen by God, and my son Mark send you greetings. ¹⁴ Greet each other with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Greeting

1 From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

To those who have obtained a faith that is as valuable as ours, a faith based on the approval that comes from our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

² May good will ^[i] and peace fill your lives through your knowledge about Jesus, our God and Lord!

God’s Power Gives Us the Ability to Live Godly Lives

³ God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. This power was given to us through knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and integrity. ⁴ Through his glory and integrity he has given us his promises that are of the highest value. Through these promises you will share in the divine nature because you have escaped the corruption that sinful desires cause in the world.

⁵ Because of this, make every effort to add integrity to your faith; and to integrity add knowledge; ⁶ to knowledge add self-control; to self-control add endurance; to endurance add godliness; ⁷ to godliness add Christian affection; and to Christian affection add love. ⁸ If you have these qualities and they are increasing, it demonstrates that your knowledge about our Lord Jesus Christ is living and productive. ⁹ If these qualities aren’t present in your life, you’re shortsighted and have forgotten that you were cleansed from your past sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers and sisters, use more effort to make God’s calling and choosing of you secure.

If you keep doing this, you will never fall away. ¹¹ Then you will also be given the wealth of entering into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹² Therefore, I will always remind you about these qualities, although you already know about them and are well-grounded in the truth that you now have. ¹³ As long as I’m still alive, I think it’s right to refresh your memory. ¹⁴ I know that I will die soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made that clear to me. ¹⁵ So I will make every effort to see that you remember these things after I die.

Pay Attention to God’s Words

¹⁶ When we apostles told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we didn’t base our message on clever myths that we made up. Rather, we witnessed his majesty with our own eyes. ¹⁷ For example, we were eyewitnesses when he received honor and glory from God the Father and when the voice of our majestic God spoke these words to him: “This is my Son, whom I love and in whom I delight.” ¹⁸ We heard that voice speak to him from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ So we regard the words of the prophets as confirmed beyond all doubt. You’re doing well by paying attention to their words. Continue to pay attention as you would to a light that shines in a dark place as you wait for day to come and the morning star to rise in your hearts. ²⁰ First, you must understand this: No prophecy in Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation. ²¹ No prophecy ever originated from humans. Instead, it was given by the Holy Spirit as humans spoke under God’s direction.

Warnings about False Teachers

2 False prophets were among God’s people ⌞in the past⌟, as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction. ² Many people will follow them in their sexual freedom and will cause others to dishonor the way of truth. ³ In their greed they will use good-sounding arguments to exploit you. The verdict against them from long ago is still in force, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ God didn’t spare angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, where he has secured them with chains of darkness and is holding them for judgment.

⁵ God didn’t spare the ancient world either. He brought the flood on the world of ungodly people, but he protected Noah and seven other people. Noah was his messenger who told people about the kind of life that has God’s approval.

⁶ God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them by burning them to ashes. He made those cities an example to ungodly people of what is going to happen to them. ⁷ Yet, God rescued Lot, a man who had his approval. Lot was distressed by the lifestyle of people who had no principles and lived in sexual freedom. ⁸ Although he was a man who had God’s approval, he lived among the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each day was like torture to him as he saw and heard the immoral things that people did.

⁹ Since the Lord did all this, he knows how to rescue godly people when they are tested. He also knows how to hold immoral people for punishment on the day of judgment. ¹⁰ This is especially true of those who follow their corrupt nature along the path of impure desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.

These false teachers are bold and arrogant. They aren’t afraid to insult the ⌞Lord’s⌟ glory. ¹¹ Angels, who have more strength and power than these teachers, don’t bring an insulting judgment against them from the Lord. ¹² These false teachers insult what they don’t understand. They are like animals, which are creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. So they will be destroyed like animals ¹³ and lose what their wrongdoing earned them.

These false teachers are stains and blemishes. They take pleasure in holding wild parties in broad daylight. They especially enjoy deceiving you while they eat with you. ¹⁴ They’re always looking for an adulterous woman. They can’t stop looking for sin as they seduce people who aren’t sure of what they believe. Their minds are focused on their greed. They are cursed.

¹⁵ These false teachers have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam, son of Beor. Balaam loved what his wrongdoing earned him. ¹⁶ But he was convicted for his evil. A donkey, which normally can’t talk, spoke with a human voice and wouldn’t allow the prophet to continue his insanity.

¹⁷ These false teachers are dried-up springs. They are a mist blown around by a storm. Gloomy darkness has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They arrogantly use nonsense to seduce people by appealing to their sexual desires, especially to sexual freedom. They seduce people who have just escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise these people freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption. A person is a slave to whatever he gives in to.

²⁰ People can know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and escape the world’s filth. But if they get involved in this filth again and give in to it, they are worse off than they were before. ²¹ It would have been better for them never to have known the way of life that God approves of than to know it and turn their backs on the holy life God told them to live. ²² These proverbs have come true for them: “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and “A sow that has been washed goes back to roll around in the mud.”

Be Ready for the Day of the Lord

3 Dear friends, this is the second letter I’m writing to you. In both letters I’m trying to refresh your memory. ² I want you to remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and what the Lord and Savior commanded you through your apostles.

³ First, you must understand this: In the last days people who follow their own desires will appear. These disrespectful people will ridicule ⌞God’s promise⌟ ⁴ by saying, “What’s happened to his promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of the world.”

⁵ They are deliberately ignoring one fact: Because of God’s word, heaven and earth existed a long time ago. The earth ⌞appeared⌟ out of water and was kept alive by water. ⁶ Water also flooded and destroyed that world. ⁷ By God’s word, the present heaven and earth are designated to be burned. They are being kept until the day ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.

⁸ Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹ The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. Rather, he is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act.

¹⁰ The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day heaven will pass away with a roaring sound. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed. The earth and everything that people have done on it will be exposed.^[j]

¹¹ All these things will be destroyed in this way. So think of the kind of holy and godly lives you must live ¹² as you look forward to the day of God and eagerly wait for it to come. When that day comes, heaven will be on fire and will be destroyed. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and melt. ¹³ But we look forward to what God has promised—a new heaven and a new earth—a place where everything that has God’s approval lives.

¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, with this to look forward to, make every effort to have him find you at peace, without ⌞spiritual⌟ stains or blemishes. ¹⁵ Think of our Lord’s patience as an opportunity ⌞for us⌟ to be saved. This is what our dear brother Paul wrote to you about, using the wisdom God gave him. ¹⁶ He talks about this subject in all his letters. Some things in his letters are hard to understand. Ignorant people and people who aren’t sure of what they believe distort what Paul says in his letters the same way they distort the rest of the Scriptures. These people will be destroyed.

¹⁷ Dear friends, you already know these things. So be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of people who have no principles. Then you won’t fall from your firm position. ¹⁸ But grow in the good will ^[k] and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory belongs to him now and for that eternal day! Amen.

John’s Reason for Writing

1 The Word of life existed from the beginning. We have heard it. We have seen it. We observed and touched it. ² This life was revealed to us. We have seen it, and we testify about it. We are reporting to you about this eternal life that was in the presence of the Father and was revealed to us. ³ This is the life we have seen and heard. We are reporting about it to you also so that you, too, can have a relationship with us. Our relationship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing this so that we can be completely filled with joy.

Through Jesus We Have a Relationship with God

⁵ This is the message we heard from Christ and are reporting to you: God is light, and there isn’t any darkness in him. ⁶ If we say, “We have a relationship with God” and yet live in the dark, we’re lying. We aren’t being truthful.

⁷ But if we live in the light in the same way that God is in the light, we have a relationship with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from every sin. ⁸ If we say, “We aren’t sinful” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong. ¹⁰ If we say, “We have never sinned,” we turn God into a liar and his Word is not in us.

2 My dear children, I’m writing this to you so that you will not sin. Yet, if anyone does sin, we have Jesus Christ, who has God’s full approval. He speaks on our behalf when we come into the presence of the Father. ² He is the payment for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Those Who Know Christ Obey His Commandments

³ We are sure that we know Christ if we obey his commandments. ⁴ The person who says, “I know him,” but doesn’t obey his commandments is a liar. The truth isn’t in that person. ⁵ But whoever obeys what Christ says is the kind of person in whom God’s love is perfected. That’s how we know we are in Christ. ⁶ Those who say that they live in him must live the same way he lived.

⁷ Dear friends, it’s not as though I’m writing to give you a new commandment. Rather, I’m giving you an old commandment that you’ve had from the beginning. It’s the old commandment you’ve already heard. ⁸ On the other hand, I’m writing to give you a new commandment. It’s a truth that exists in Christ and in you: The darkness is fading, and the true light is already shining.

⁹ Those who say that they are in the light but hate other believers are still in the dark. ¹⁰ Those who love other believers live in the light. Nothing will destroy the faith of those who live in the light. ¹¹ Those who hate other believers are in the dark and live in the dark. They don’t know where they’re going, because they can’t see in the dark.

Don’t Love the World

¹⁵ Don’t love the world and what it offers. Those who love the world don’t have the Father’s love in them. ¹⁶ Not everything that the world offers—physical gratification, greed, and extravagant lifestyles—comes from the Father. It comes from the world, and ¹⁷ the world and its evil desires are passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever.

Live in Christ

¹⁸ Children, it’s the end of time. You’ve heard that an antichrist is coming. Certainly, many antichrists are already here. That’s how we know it’s the end of time. ¹⁹ They left us. However, they were never really part of us. If they had been, they would have stayed with us. But by leaving they made it clear that none of them were part of us.

²⁰ The Holy One has anointed you, so all of you have knowledge. ²¹ I’m writing to you because you know the truth, not because you don’t know the truth. You know that no lie ever comes from the truth.

²² Who is a liar? Who else but the person who rejects Jesus as the Messiah? The person who rejects the Father and the Son is an antichrist. ²³ Everyone who rejects the Son doesn’t have the Father either. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father. ²⁴ Make sure that the message you heard from the beginning lives in you. If that message lives in you, you will also live in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ Christ has given us the promise of eternal life.

²⁶ I’m writing to you about those who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷ The anointing you received from Christ lives in you. You don’t need anyone to teach you something else. Instead, Christ’s anointing teaches you about everything. His anointing is true and contains no lie. So live in Christ as he taught you to do.

We Are God’s Children

²⁸ Now, dear children, live in Christ. Then, when he appears we will have confidence, and when he comes we won’t turn from him in shame. ²⁹ If you know that Christ has God’s approval, you also know that everyone who does what God approves of has been born from God.

3 Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. And that’s what we are. For this reason the world doesn’t recognize us, and it didn’t recognize him either. ² Dear friends, now we are God’s children. What we will be isn’t completely clear yet. We do know that when Christ appears we will be like him because we will see him as he is. ³ So all people who have this confidence in Christ keep themselves pure, as Christ is pure.

⁴ Those who live sinful lives are disobeying God. Sin is disobedience. ⁵ You know that Christ appeared in order to take away our sins. He isn’t sinful. ⁶ Those who live in Christ don’t go on sinning. Those who go on sinning haven’t seen or known Christ.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you. Whoever does what God approves of has God’s approval as Christ has God’s approval. ⁸ The person who lives a sinful life belongs to the devil, because the devil has been committing sin since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does. ⁹ Those who have been born from God don’t live sinful lives. What God has said lives in them, and they can’t live sinful lives. They have been born from God. ¹⁰ This is the way God’s children are distinguished from the devil’s children. Everyone who doesn’t do what is right or love other believers isn’t God’s child.

Love One Another

¹¹ The message that you have heard from the beginning is to love each other. ¹² Don’t be like Cain. He was a child of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain murder his brother? Because the things Cain did were evil and the things his brother did had God’s approval. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised if the world hates you.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love other believers. The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates another believer is a murderer, and you know that a murderer doesn’t have eternal life.

¹⁶ We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. ¹⁷ Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? ¹⁸ Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.

¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be reassured in his presence. ²⁰ Whenever our conscience condemns us, we will be reassured that God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we can boldly look to God ²² and receive from him anything we ask. We receive it because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ This is his commandment: to believe in his Son, the one named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who obey Christ’s commandments live in God, and God lives in them. We know that he lives in us because he has given us the Spirit.

Test People Who Say They Have God’s Spirit

4 Dear friends, don’t believe all people who say that they have the Spirit. Instead, test them. See whether the spirit they have is from God, because there are many false prophets in the world. ² This is how you can recognize God’s Spirit: Every person who declares that Jesus Christ has come as a human has the Spirit that is from God. ³ But every person who doesn’t declare that Jesus Christ has come as a human has a spirit that isn’t from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that you have heard is coming. That spirit is already in the world.

⁴ Dear children, you belong to God. So you have won the victory over these people, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ These people belong to the world. That’s why they speak the thoughts of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever doesn’t belong to God doesn’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies.

God’s Love Lives in His People

⁷ Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. ⁸ The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. ⁹ God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³ We know that we live in him and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit.

¹⁴ We have seen and testify to the fact that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God lives in those who declare that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God. ¹⁶ We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.

¹⁷ God’s love has reached its goal in us. So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, we are exactly like him ⌞with regard to love⌟. ¹⁸ No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love.

¹⁹ We love because God loved us first. ²⁰ Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.

Those Who Believe in Jesus Are God’s Children

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God. Everyone who loves the Father also loves his children. ² We know that we love God’s children when we love God by obeying his commandments. ³ To love God means that we obey his commandments. Obeying his commandments isn’t difficult ⁴ because everyone who has been born from God has won the victory over the world. Our faith is what wins the victory over the world. ⁵ Who wins the victory over the world? Isn’t it the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶ This Son of God is Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood. He didn’t come with water only, but with water and with blood. The Spirit is the one who verifies this, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ There are three witnesses: ^{[l] 8} the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three witnesses agree.

⁹ We accept human testimony. God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony that he has given about his Son. ¹⁰ Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony of God in them. Those who don’t believe God have made God a liar. They haven’t believed the testimony that God has given about his Son.

¹¹ This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son. ¹² The person who has the Son has this life. The person who doesn’t have the Son of God doesn’t have this life.

Conclusion

¹³ I’ve written this to those who believe in the Son of God so that they will know that they have eternal life.

¹⁴ We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval. ¹⁵ We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for.

¹⁶ If you see another believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, you should pray that God would give that person life. This is true for those who commit sins that don’t lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I’m not telling you to pray about that. ¹⁷ Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that don’t lead to death.

¹⁸ We know that those who have been born from God don’t go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one can’t harm them.

¹⁹ We know that we are from God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.

²¹ Dear children, guard yourselves from false gods.

Greeting

¹ From the church leader.^[m]

To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love because we share the truth. I’m not the only one who loves you. Everyone who knows the truth also loves you. ² We love you because of the truth which lives in us and will be with us forever.

³ Good will,^[n] mercy, and peace will be with us. They come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, who in truth and love is the Father’s Son.

Living in the Truth

⁴ I was very happy to find some of your children living in the truth as the Father has commanded us. ⁵ Dear lady, I’m now requesting that we continue to love each other. It’s not as though I’m writing to give you a new commandment. Rather, from the beginning we were commanded to love each other. ⁶ Love means that we live by doing what he commands. We were commanded to live in love, and you have heard this from the beginning.

Reject Teachers Who Don’t Teach What Christ Taught

⁷ Many people who deceive others have gone into the world. They refuse to declare that Jesus Christ came in flesh and blood. This is the mark of a deceiver and an antichrist. ⁸ Be careful that you don’t destroy what we’ve worked for, but that you receive your full reward.

⁹ Everyone who doesn’t continue to teach what Christ taught doesn’t have God. The person who continues to teach what Christ taught has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and doesn’t bring these teachings, don’t take him into your home or even greet him. ¹¹ Whoever greets him shares the evil things he’s doing.

Farewell

¹² I have a lot to write to you. I would prefer not to write a letter. Instead, I hope to visit and talk things over with you personally. Then we will be completely filled with joy.

¹³ The children of your chosen sister greet you.

Greeting

¹ From the church leader.^[o]

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love because we share the truth.

Encouragement for Gaius

² Dear friend, I know that you are spiritually well. I pray that you’re doing well in every other way and that you’re healthy. ³ I was very happy when some believers came and told us that you are living according to the truth. ⁴ Nothing makes me happier than to hear that my children are living according to the truth.

⁵ Dear friend, you are showing your faith in whatever you do for other believers, especially when they’re your guests. ⁶ These believers have told the congregation about your love. You will do well to support them on their trip in a way that proves you belong to God. ⁷ After all, they went on their trip to serve the one named Christ, and they didn’t accept any help from the people to whom they went. ⁸ We must support believers who go on trips like this so that we can work together with them in spreading the truth.

Criticism of Diotrephes

⁹ I wrote a letter to the congregation. But Diotrephes, who loves to be in charge, won’t accept us. ¹⁰ For this reason, when I come I will bring up what he’s doing. He’s not satisfied with saying malicious things about us. He also refuses to accept the believers ⌞we send⌟ as guests. He even tries to stop others who want to accept them and attempts to throw those people out of the congregation.

Praise for Demetrius

¹¹ Dear friend, never imitate evil, but imitate good. The person who does good is from God. The person who does evil has never seen God.

¹² Everyone, including the truth itself, says good things about Demetrius. We also say good things about him, and you know that what we say is true.

Farewell

¹³ I have a lot to write to you. However, I would rather not write. ¹⁴ I hope to visit you very soon. Then we can talk things over personally.

¹⁵ Peace be with you! Your friends here send you their greetings. Greet each of our friends by name.