Bible in 90 Days

True Wisdom

¹³ Are there any among you who are really wise and understanding? Then you should show your wisdom by living right. You should do what is good with humility. A wise person does not boast. ¹⁴ If you are selfish and have bitter jealousy in your hearts, you have no reason to boast. Your boasting is a lie that hides the truth. ¹⁵ That kind of “wisdom” does not come from God. That “wisdom” comes from the world. It is not spiritual. It is from the devil. ¹⁶ Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there will be confusion and every kind of evil. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from God is like this: First, it is pure. It is also peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help people who have trouble and to do good for others. This wisdom is always fair and honest. ¹⁸ People who work for peace in a peaceful way get the blessings that come from right living.

Give Yourselves to God

4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside you. ² You want things, but you don’t get them. So you kill and are jealous of others. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God. ³ Or when you ask, you don’t receive anything, because the reason you ask is wrong. You only want to use it for your own pleasure.

⁴ You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy. ⁵ Do you think the Scriptures mean nothing? The Scriptures say, “The Spirit God made to live in us wants us only for himself.”^{[a] 6} But the kindness God shows is greater. As the Scripture says, “God is against the proud, but he is kind to the humble.”^[b]

⁷ So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.^[c] You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure. ⁹ Be sad, be sorry, and cry! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness. ¹⁰ Be humble before the Lord, and he will make you great.

You Are Not the Judge

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, don’t say anything against each other. If you criticize your brother or sister in Christ or judge them, you are criticizing and judging the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are not a follower of the law. You have become a judge. ¹² God is the one who gave us the law, and he is the Judge. He is the only one who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge anyone.

Let God Plan Your Life

¹³ Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” Listen, think about this: ¹⁴ You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Your life is like a fog. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. ¹⁵ So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you are proud and boast about yourself. All such boasting is wrong. ¹⁷ If you fail to do what you know is right, you are sinning.

A Warning to Rich and Selfish People

5 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because much trouble will come to you. ² Your riches will rot and be worth nothing. Your clothes will be eaten by moths. ³ Your gold and silver will rust, and that rust will be a proof that you were wrong. That rust will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure in the last days. ⁴ People worked in your fields, but you did not pay them. They are crying out against you. They harvested your crops. Now the Lord All-Powerful has heard their cries.

⁵ Your life on earth was full of rich living. You pleased yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready for the day of slaughter.^{[d] 6} You showed no mercy to good people. They were not against you, but you killed them.

Be Patient

⁷ Brothers and sisters, be patient; the Lord will come. So be patient until that time. Look at the farmers. They have to be patient. They have to wait for their valuable crop to grow and produce a harvest. They wait patiently for the first rain and the last rain.^{[e] 8} You must be patient too. Never stop hoping. The Lord is coming soon. ⁹ Brothers and sisters, don’t complain against each other. If you don’t stop complaining, you will be judged guilty. And the Judge is ready to come!

¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They suffered many bad things, but they were patient. ¹¹ And we say that those who accepted their troubles with patience now have God’s blessing. You have heard about Job’s patience.^[f] You know that after all his troubles, the Lord helped him. This shows that the Lord is full of mercy and is kind.

Be Careful What You Say

¹² My brothers and sisters, it is very important that you not use an oath when you make a promise. Don’t use the name of heaven, earth, or anything else to prove what you say. When you mean yes, say only “yes.” When you mean no, say only “no.” Do this so that you will not be judged guilty.

The Power of Prayer

¹³ Are you having troubles? You should pray. Are you happy? You should sing. ¹⁴ Are you sick? Ask the elders of the church to come and rub oil on you^[g] in the name of the Lord and pray for you. ¹⁵ If such a prayer is offered in faith, it will heal anyone who is sick. The Lord will heal them. And if they have sinned, he will forgive them.

¹⁶ So always tell each other the wrong things you have done. Then pray for each other. Do this so that God can heal you. Anyone who lives the way God wants can pray, and great things will happen. ¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us. He prayed that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then Elijah prayed that it would rain. And the rain came down from the sky, and the land grew crops again.

Helping People When They Sin

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone wanders away from the truth and someone helps that person come back, ²⁰ remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that person from eternal death and cause many sins to be forgiven.

1 Greetings from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To God’s chosen people who are away from their homes—people scattered all over the areas of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. ² God planned long ago to choose you and to make you his holy people, which is the Spirit’s work. God wanted you to obey him and to be made clean by the blood sacrifice^[h] of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you will enjoy more and more of God’s grace and peace.

A Living Hope

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has great mercy, and because of his mercy he gave us a new life. This new life brings us a living hope through Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death. ⁴ Now we wait to receive the blessings God has for his children. These blessings are kept for you in heaven. They cannot be ruined or be destroyed or lose their beauty.

⁵ God’s power protects you through your faith, and it keeps you safe until your salvation comes. That salvation is ready to be given to you at the end of time. ⁶ I know the thought of that is exciting, even if you must suffer through different kinds of troubles for a short time now. ⁷ These troubles test your faith and prove that it is pure. And such faith is worth more than gold. Gold can be proved to be pure by fire, but gold will ruin. When your faith is proven to be pure, the result will be praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ comes.

⁸ You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You can’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a wonderful and heavenly joy that cannot be explained. ⁹ Your faith has a goal, and you are reaching that goal—your salvation.

¹⁰ The prophets studied carefully and tried to learn about this salvation. They spoke about the grace that was coming to you. ¹¹ The Spirit of Christ was in those prophets. And the Spirit was telling about the sufferings that would happen to Christ and about the glory that would come after those sufferings. The prophets tried to learn about what the Spirit was showing them—when it would happen and what the world would be like at that time.

¹² It was made clear to them that their service was not for themselves. They were serving you when they told about the things you have now heard. You heard them from those who told you the Good News with the help of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels would like very much to know more about these things you were told.

A Call to Holy Living

¹³ So prepare your minds for service. With complete self-control put all your hope in the grace that will be yours when Jesus Christ comes. ¹⁴ In the past you did not have the understanding you have now, so you did the evil things you wanted to do. But now you are children of God, so you should obey him and not live the way you did before. ¹⁵ Be holy in everything you do, just as God is holy. He is the one who chose you. ¹⁶ In the Scriptures God says, “Be holy, because I am holy.”^[i]

¹⁷ You pray to God and call him Father, but he will judge everyone the same way—by what they do. So while you are visiting here on earth, you should live with respect for God. ¹⁸ You know that in the past the way you were living was useless. It was a way of life you learned from those who lived before you. But you were saved from that way of living. You were bought, but not with things that ruin like gold or silver. ¹⁹ You were bought with the precious blood of Christ’s death. He was a pure and perfect sacrificial Lamb. ²⁰ Christ was chosen before the world was made, but he was shown to the world in these last times for you. ²¹ You believe in God through Christ. God is the one who raised him from death and gave honor to him. So your faith and your hope are in God.

²² You have made yourselves pure by obeying the truth. Now you can have true love for your brothers and sisters. So love each other deeply—with all your heart. ²³ You have been born again. This new life did not come from something that dies. It came from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s life-giving message that lasts forever. ²⁴ The Scriptures say,

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

The Living Stone and the Holy Nation

2 So then, stop doing anything to hurt others. Don’t lie anymore, and stop trying to fool people. Don’t be jealous or say bad things about others. ² Like newborn babies hungry for milk, you should want the pure teaching that feeds your spirit. With it you can grow up and be saved. ³ You have already tasted the goodness of the Lord.

⁴ The Lord Jesus is the living stone.^[j] The people of the world decided that they did not want this stone. But he is the one God chose as one of great value. So come to him. ⁵ You also are like living stones, and God is using you to build a spiritual house.^[k] You are to serve God in this house as holy priests, offering him spiritual sacrifices that he will accept because of Jesus Christ. ⁶ The Scriptures say,

⁷ So, that stone brings honor for you who believe. But for those who don’t believe he is

⁸ For them he is also

People stumble because they don’t obey what God says. This is what God planned to happen to those people.

⁹ But you are his chosen people, the King’s priests. You are a holy nation, people who belong to God. He chose you to tell about the wonderful things he has done. He brought you out of the darkness of sin into his wonderful light.

Live for God

¹¹ Dear friends, you are like visitors and strangers in this world. So I beg you to keep your lives free from the evil things you want to do, those desires that fight against your true selves. ¹² People who don’t believe are living all around you. They may say that you are doing wrong. So live such good lives that they will see the good you do, and they will give glory to God on the day he comes.

Obey Every Human Authority

¹³ Be willing to serve the people who have authority^[m] in this world. Do this for the Lord. Obey the king, the highest authority. ¹⁴ And obey the leaders who are sent by the king. They are sent to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ When you do good, you stop ignorant people from saying foolish things about you. This is what God wants. ¹⁶ Live like free people, but don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Live as those who are serving God. ¹⁷ Show respect for all people. Love your brothers and sisters in God’s family. Respect God, and honor the king.

The Example of Christ’s Suffering

¹⁸ Slaves, be willing to serve your masters. Do this with all respect. You should obey the masters who are good and kind, and you should obey the masters who are bad. ¹⁹ One of you might have to suffer even when you have done nothing wrong. If you think of God and bear the pain, this pleases God. ²⁰ But if you are punished for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for bearing that punishment. But if you suffer for doing good and you are patient, this pleases God. ²¹ This is what you were chosen to do. Christ gave you an example to follow. He suffered for you. So you should do the same as he did:

²³ People insulted him, but he did not insult them back. He suffered, but he did not threaten anyone. No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly. ²⁴ Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did this so that we would stop living for sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you were healed. ²⁵ You were like sheep that went the wrong way. But now you have come back to the Shepherd and Protector of your lives.

Wives and Husbands

3 In the same way, you wives should be willing to serve your husbands. Then, even those who have refused to accept God’s teaching will be persuaded to believe because of the way you live. You will not need to say anything. ² Your husbands will see the pure lives that you live with respect for God. ³ It is not fancy hair, gold jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful. ⁴ No, your beauty should come from inside you—the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. That beauty will never disappear. It is worth very much to God.

⁵ It was the same with the holy women who lived long ago and followed God. They made themselves beautiful in that same way. They were willing to serve their husbands. ⁶ I am talking about women like Sarah. She obeyed Abraham, her husband, and called him her master. And you women are true children of Sarah if you always do what is right and are not afraid.

⁷ In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way, since they are weaker than you. You should show them respect, because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace of true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers from being heard.

Suffering for Doing Right

⁸ So all of you should live together in peace. Try to understand each other. Love each other like brothers and sisters. Be kind and humble. ⁹ Don’t do wrong to anyone to pay them back for doing wrong to you. Or don’t insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you. But ask God to bless them. Do this because you yourselves were chosen to receive a blessing. ¹⁰ The Scriptures say,

¹³ If you are always trying to do good, no one can really harm you. ¹⁴ But you may suffer for doing right. If that happens, you have God’s blessing. “Don’t be afraid of the people who make you suffer; don’t be worried.”^{[n] 15} But keep the Lord Christ holy in your hearts. Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have. ¹⁶ But answer them in a gentle way with respect. Keep your conscience clear. Then people will see the good way you live as followers of Christ, and those who say bad things about you will be ashamed of what they said.

¹⁷ It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. Yes, it is better if that is what God wants.

¹⁹ And by the Spirit he went and preached to the spirits in prison. ²⁰ Those were the spirits who refused to obey God long ago in the time of Noah. God was waiting patiently for people while Noah was building the big boat. And only a few—eight in all—were saved in the boat through the floodwater. ²¹ And that water is like baptism, which now saves you. Baptism is not the washing of dirt from the body. It is asking God for a clean conscience. It saves you because Jesus Christ was raised from death. ²² Now he has gone into heaven. He is at God’s right side and rules over angels, authorities, and powers.

Changed Lives

4 Christ suffered while he was in his body. So you should strengthen yourselves with the same kind of thinking Christ had. The one who accepts suffering in this life has clearly decided to stop sinning. ² Strengthen yourselves so that you will live your lives here on earth doing what God wants, not the evil things that people want to do. ³ In the past you wasted too much time doing what those who don’t know God like to do. You were living immoral lives, doing the evil things you wanted to do. You were always getting drunk, having wild drinking parties, and doing shameful things in your worship of idols.

⁴ Now those “friends” think it is strange that you no longer join them in all the wild and wasteful things they do. And so they say bad things about you. ⁵ But they will have to face God to explain what they have done. He is the one who will soon judge everyone—those who are still living and those who have died. ⁶ Some were told the Good News before they died. They were criticized by others in their life here on earth. But it was God’s plan that they hear the Good News so that they could have a new life through the Spirit.^[p]

Be Good Managers of God’s Gifts

⁷ The time is near when all things will end. So keep your minds clear, and control yourselves. This will help you in your prayers. ⁸ Most important of all, love each other deeply, because love makes you willing to forgive many sins. ⁹ Open your homes to each other and share your food without complaining. ¹⁰ God has shown you his grace in many different ways. So be good servants and use whatever gift he has given you in a way that will best serve each other. ¹¹ If your gift is speaking, your words should be like words from God. If your gift is serving, you should serve with the strength that God gives. Then it is God who will be praised in everything through Jesus Christ. Power and glory belong to him forever and ever. Amen.

Suffering as a Follower of Christ

¹² My friends, don’t be surprised at the painful things that you are now suffering, which are testing your faith. Don’t think that something strange is happening to you. ¹³ But you should be happy that you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings. You will be happy and full of joy when Christ shows his glory. ¹⁴ When people say bad things to you because you follow Christ, consider it a blessing. When that happens, it shows that God’s Spirit, the Spirit of glory, is with you. ¹⁵ You may suffer, but don’t let it be because you murder, steal, make trouble, or try to control other people’s lives. ¹⁶ But if you suffer because you are a “Christ-follower,” don’t be ashamed. You should praise God for that name. ¹⁷ It is time for judging to begin. That judging will begin with God’s family. If it begins with us, then what will happen to those who don’t accept the Good News of God?

¹⁹ So if God wants you to suffer, you should trust your lives to him. He is the one who made you, and you can trust him. So continue to do good.

The Flock of God

5 Now I have something to say to the elders in your group. I am also an elder. I myself have seen Christ’s sufferings. And I will share in the glory that will be shown to us. I beg you to ² take care of the group of people you are responsible for. They are God’s flock.^[q] Watch over that flock because you want to, not because you are forced to do it. That is how God wants it. Do it because you are happy to serve, not because you want money. ³ Don’t be like a ruler over those you are responsible for. But be good examples to them. ⁴ Then when Christ the Ruling Shepherd comes, you will get a crown—one that will be glorious and never lose its beauty.

⁵ Young people, I have something to say to you too. You should accept the authority of the elders. You should all have a humble attitude in dealing with each other.

⁶ So be humble under God’s powerful hand. Then he will lift you up when the right time comes. ⁷ Give all your worries to him, because he cares for you.

⁸ Control yourselves and be careful! The devil is your enemy, and he goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to attack and eat. ⁹ Refuse to follow the devil. Stand strong in your faith. You know that your brothers and sisters all over the world are having the same sufferings that you have.

¹⁰ Yes, you will suffer for a short time. But after that, God will make everything right. He will make you strong. He will support you and keep you from falling. He is the God who gives all grace. He chose you to share in his glory in Christ. That glory will continue forever. ¹¹ All power is his forever. Amen.

Final Greetings

¹² Silas will bring this letter to you. I know that he is a faithful brother in Christ. I wrote this short letter to encourage you. I wanted to tell you that this is the true grace of God. Stand strong in that grace.

¹³ The church in Babylon^[r] sends you greetings. They were chosen just as you were. Mark, my son in Christ, also sends his greetings. ¹⁴ Give each other a special greeting^[s] of love when you meet.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

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

To all of you who share in the same valuable faith that we have. This faith was given to us because our God and Savior Jesus Christ always does what is good and right.

² Grace and peace be given to you more and more, because now you know God and Jesus our Lord.

God Has Given Us Everything We Need

³ Jesus has the power of God. And his power has given us everything we need to live a life devoted to God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus chose us by his glory and goodness, ⁴ through which he also gave us the very great and rich gifts that he promised us. With these gifts you can share in being like God. And so you will escape the ruin that comes to people in the world because of the evil things they want.

⁵ Because you have these blessings, do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; ⁶ to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God; ⁷ to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love. ⁸ If all these things are in you and growing, you will never fail to be useful to God. You will produce the kind of fruit that should come from your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But those who don’t grow in these blessings are blind. They cannot see clearly what they have. They have forgotten that they were cleansed from their past sins.

¹⁰ My brothers and sisters, God called you and chose you to be his. Do your best to live in a way that shows you really are God’s called and chosen people. If you do all this, you will never fall. ¹¹ And you will be given a very great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a kingdom that never ends.

¹² You already know these things. You are very strong in the truth you have. But I am always going to help you remember them. ¹³ While I am still living here on earth, I think it is right for me to remind you of them. ¹⁴ I know that I must soon leave this body. Our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that. ¹⁵ I will try my best to make sure you remember these things even after I am gone.

We Saw Christ’s Glory

¹⁶ We told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. We told you about his coming. The things we told you were not just clever stories that people invented. No, we saw the greatness of Jesus with our own eyes. ¹⁷ Jesus heard the voice of the great and glorious God. That was when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice said, “This is my Son, the one I love. I am very pleased with him.” ¹⁸ And we heard that voice. It came from heaven while we were with Jesus on the holy mountain.^[t]

¹⁹ This makes us more sure about what the prophets said. And it is good for you to follow closely what they said, which is like a light shining in a dark place. You have that light until the day begins and the morning star brings new light to your minds. ²⁰ Most important of all, you must understand this: No prophecy in the Scriptures comes from the prophet’s own understanding. ²¹ No prophecy ever came from what some person wanted to say. But people were led by the Holy Spirit and spoke words from God.

False Teachers

2 In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. ² Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow. ³ These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them.

⁴ When angels sinned, God did not let them go free without punishment. He sent them to hell. He put those angels in caves of darkness, where they are being held until the time when God will judge them.

⁵ And God punished the evil people who lived long ago. He brought a flood to the world that was full of people who were against God. But he saved Noah and seven other people with him. Noah was a man who told people about living right.

⁶ God also punished the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned them until there was nothing left but ashes. He used those cities as an example of what will happen to people who are against God. ⁷ But he saved Lot, a good man who lived there. Lot was greatly troubled by the morally bad lives of those evil people. ⁸ This good man lived with those evil people every day, and his good heart was hurt by the evil things he saw and heard.

⁹ So you see that the Lord God knows how to save those who are devoted to him. He will save them when troubles come. And the Lord will hold evil people to punish them on the day of judgment. ¹⁰ That punishment is for those who are always doing the evil that their sinful selves want to do. It is for those who hate the Lord’s authority.

These false teachers do whatever they want, and they are so proud of themselves. They are not afraid even to say bad things against the glorious ones.^{[u] 11} The angels are much stronger and more powerful than these beings. But even the angels don’t accuse them and say bad things about them to the Lord.

¹² But these false teachers speak evil against what they don’t understand. They are like animals that do things without really thinking—like wild animals that are born to be caught and killed. And, like wild animals, they will be destroyed. ¹³ They have made many people suffer. So they themselves will suffer. That is their pay for what they have done.

They think it is fun to do evil where everyone can see them. They enjoy the evil things that please them. So they are like dirty spots and stains among you—they bring shame to you in the meals you eat together. ¹⁴ Every time they look at a woman, they want her. They are always sinning this way. And they lead weaker people into the trap of sin. They have taught themselves well to be greedy. They are under a curse.^[v]

¹⁵ These false teachers left the right way and went the wrong way. They followed the same way that the prophet Balaam went. He was the son of Beor, who loved being paid for doing wrong. ¹⁶ But a donkey told him that he was doing wrong. A donkey cannot talk, of course, but that donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the prophet from acting so crazy.

¹⁷ These false teachers are like springs that have no water. They are like clouds that are blown by a storm. A place in the deepest darkness has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They boast with words that mean nothing. They lead people into the trap of sin. They find people who have just escaped from a wrong way of life and lead them back into sin. They do this by using the evil things people want to do in their human weakness. ¹⁹ These false teachers promise those people freedom, but they themselves are not free. They are slaves to a mind that has been ruined by sin. Yes, people are slaves to anything that controls them.

²⁰ People can be made free from the evil in the world. They can be made free by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they go back into those evil things and are controlled by them, then it is worse for them than it was before. ²¹ Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them. ²² What they did is like these true sayings: “A dog vomits and goes back to what it threw up.”^[w] And, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud again.”

Jesus Will Come Again

3 My friends, this is the second letter I have written to you. I wrote both letters to you to help your honest minds remember something. ² I want you to remember the words that the holy prophets spoke in the past. And remember the command that our Lord and Savior gave us. He gave us that command through your apostles.

³ It is important for you to understand what will happen in the last days. People will laugh at you. They will live following the evil they want to do. ⁴ They will say, “Jesus promised to come again. Where is he? Our fathers have died, but the world continues the way it has been since it was made.”

⁵ But these people don’t want to remember what happened long ago. The skies were there, and God made the earth from water and with water. All this happened by God’s word. ⁶ Then the world was flooded and destroyed with water. ⁷ And that same word of God is keeping the skies and the earth that we have now. They are being kept to be destroyed by fire. They are kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of all people who are against God.

⁸ But don’t forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning.

¹⁰ But the day when the Lord comes again will surprise everyone like the coming of a thief. The sky will disappear with a loud noise. Everything in the sky will be destroyed with fire. And the earth and everything in it will be burned up.^{[x] 11} Everything will be destroyed in this way. So what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and devoted to God. ¹² You should be looking forward to the day of God, wanting more than anything else for it to come soon. When it comes, the sky will be destroyed with fire, and everything in the sky will melt with heat. ¹³ But God made a promise to us. And we are waiting for what he promised—a new sky and a new earth. That will be the place where goodness lives.

¹⁴ Dear friends, we are waiting for this to happen. So try as hard as you can to be without sin and without fault. Try to be at peace with God. ¹⁵ Remember that we are saved because our Lord is patient. Our dear brother Paul told you that same thing when he wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶ That’s what he says in all his letters when he writes about these things. There are parts of his letters that are hard to understand, and some people give a wrong meaning to them. These people are ignorant and weak in faith. They also give wrong meanings to the other Scriptures. But they are destroying themselves by doing that.

¹⁷ Dear friends, you already know about this. So be careful. Don’t let these evil people lead you away by the wrong they do. Be careful that you do not fall from your strong faith. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, now and forever! Amen.

1 We want to tell you about the Word^[y] that gives life—the one who existed before the world began. This is the one we have heard and have seen with our own eyes. We saw what he did, and our hands touched him. ² Yes, the one who is life was shown to us. We saw him, and so we can tell others about him. We now tell you about him. He is the eternal life that was with God the Father and was shown to us. ³ We are telling you about what we have seen and heard because we want you to have fellowship^[z] with us. The fellowship we share together is with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write these things to you so that you can be full of joy with us.

God Forgives Our Sins

⁵ We heard the true teaching from God. Now we tell it to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness. ⁶ So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don’t follow the truth. ⁷ We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us. We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we are saying that God is a liar and that we don’t accept his true teaching.

Jesus Is Our Helper

2 My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He always did what was right, so he is able to defend us before God the Father. ² Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too.

³ If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him. ⁴ If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us. ⁵ But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him. ⁶ If we say we live in God, we must live the way Jesus lived.

Jesus Told Us to Love Others

⁷ My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you. It is the same command you have had since the beginning. This command is the teaching you have already heard. ⁸ But what I write is also a new command. It is a true one; you can see its truth in Jesus and in yourselves. The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

⁹ Someone might say, “I am in the light,” but if they hate any of their brothers or sisters in God’s family, they are still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Those who love their brothers and sisters live in the light, and there is nothing in them that will make them do wrong. ¹¹ But whoever hates their brother or sister is in darkness. They live in darkness. They don’t know where they are going, because the darkness has made them blind.

¹⁵ Don’t love this evil world or the things in it. If you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. ¹⁶ This is all there is in the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. But none of these comes from the Father. They come from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, and all the things that people want in the world are passing away. But whoever does what God wants will live forever.

Don’t Follow the Enemies of Christ

¹⁸ My dear children, the end is near! You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming. And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is near. ¹⁹ These enemies were in our group, but they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.

²⁰ You have the gift^[aa] that the Holy One^[ab] gave you. So you all know the truth. ²¹ Do you think I am writing this letter because you don’t know the truth? No, I am writing because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.

²² So who is the liar? It is the one who says Jesus is not the Messiah. Whoever says that is the enemy of Christ—the one who does not believe in the Father or in his Son. ²³ Whoever does not believe in the Son does not have the Father, but whoever accepts the Son has the Father too.

²⁴ Be sure that you continue to follow the teaching you heard from the beginning. If you do that, you will always be in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what the Son promised us—eternal life.

²⁶ I am writing this letter about those who are trying to lead you into the wrong way. ²⁷ Christ gave you a special gift. You still have this gift in you. So you don’t need anyone to teach you. The gift he gave you teaches you about everything. It is a true gift, not a false one. So continue to live in Christ, as his gift taught you.

²⁸ Yes, my dear children, live in him. If we do this, we can be without fear on the day when Christ comes again. We will not need to hide and be ashamed when he comes. ²⁹ You know that Christ always did what was right. So you know that all those who do what is right are God’s children.

We Are God’s Children

3 The Father has loved us so much! This shows how much he loved us: We are called children of God. And we really are his children. But the people in the world don’t understand that we are God’s children, because they have not known him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God. We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is. ³ He is pure, and everyone who has this hope in him keeps themselves pure like Christ.

⁴ Anyone who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sinning is the same as living against God’s law. ⁵ You know that Christ came to take away people’s sins. There is no sin in Christ. ⁶ So whoever lives in Christ does not continue to sin. If they continue to sin, they have never really understood Christ and have never known him.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you into the wrong way. Christ always did what was right. So to be good like Christ, you must do what is right. ⁸ The devil has been sinning since the beginning. Anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this: to destroy the devil’s work.

⁹ Those who are God’s children do not continue to sin, because the new life God gave them^[ac] stays in them. They cannot keep sinning, because they have become children of God. ¹⁰ So we can see who God’s children are and who the devil’s children are. These are the ones who are not God’s children: those who don’t do what is right and those who do not love their brothers and sisters in God’s family.

We Must Love One Another

¹¹ This is the teaching you have heard from the beginning: We must love each other. ¹² Don’t be like Cain. He belonged to the Evil One. Cain killed his brother. But why did he kill him? Because what Cain did was evil, and what his brother did was good.

¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised when the people of this world hate you. ¹⁴ We know that we have left death and have come into life. We know this because we love each other as brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love is still in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a fellow believer is a murderer.^[ad] And you know that no murderer has eternal life.

¹⁶ This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Suppose a believer who is rich enough to have all the necessities of life sees a fellow believer who is poor and does not have even basic needs. What if the rich believer does not help the poor one? Then it is clear that God’s love is not in that person’s heart. ¹⁸ My children, our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.

^19-20 That’s how we know we belong to the way of truth. And when our hearts make us feel guilty, we can still have peace before God, because God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything.

²¹ My dear friends, if we don’t feel that we are doing wrong, we can be without fear when we come to God. ²² And God gives us what we ask for. We receive it because we obey God’s commands and do what pleases him. ²³ This is what God commands: that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love each other as he commanded. ²⁴ All who obey God’s commands live in God. And God lives in them. How do we know that God lives in us? We know because of the Spirit he gave us.

John Warns Against False Teachers

4 My dear friends, many false prophets are in the world now. So don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God. ² This is how you can recognize God’s Spirit. One spirit says, “I believe that Jesus is the Messiah who came to earth and became a man.” That Spirit is from God. ³ Another spirit refuses to say this about Jesus. That spirit is not from God. This is the spirit of the enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now he is already in the world.

⁴ My dear children, you belong to God, so you have already defeated these false prophets. That’s because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ And they belong to the world, so what they say is from the world too. And the world listens to what they say. ⁶ But we are from God. So the people who know God listen to us. But the people who are not from God don’t listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit that is true and the spirit that is false.

Love Comes From God

⁷ Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. ¹⁰ True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.

¹¹ That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God’s love has reached its goal—it is made perfect in us.

¹³ We know that we live in God and God lives in us. We know this because he gave us his Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, and this is what we tell people now. ¹⁵ Anyone who says, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” is a person who lives in God, and God lives in that person. ¹⁶ So we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.

God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them. ¹⁷ If God’s love is made perfect in us, we can be without fear on the day when God judges the world. We will be without fear, because in this world we are like Jesus.^{[ae] 18} Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love takes away fear. It is his punishment that makes a person fear. So his love is not made perfect in the one who has fear.

¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ If we say we love God but hate any of our brothers or sisters in his family, we are liars. If we don’t love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never even seen him. ²¹ God gave us this command: If we love God, we must also love each other as brothers and sisters.

God’s Children Win Against the World

5 The people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah are God’s children. Anyone who loves the Father also loves the Father’s children. ² How do we know that we love God’s children? We know because we love God and we obey his commands. ³ Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us, ⁴ because everyone who is a child of God has the power to win against the world. ⁵ It is our faith that has won the victory against the world. So who wins against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

God Told Us About His Son

⁶ Jesus Christ is the one who came. He came with water and with blood.^[af] He did not come by water only. No, Jesus came by both water and blood. And the Spirit tells us that this is true. The Spirit is the truth. ⁷ So there are three witnesses that tell us about Jesus: ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three witnesses agree.

⁹ We believe people when they say something is true. But what God says is more important. And this is what God told us: He told us the truth about his own Son. ¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God has the truth that God told us. But people who do not believe God make God a liar, because they do not believe what God told us about his Son. ¹¹ This is what God told us: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

We Have Eternal Life Now

¹³ I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God. I write so that you will know that you have eternal life now. ¹⁴ We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. ¹⁵ He listens to us every time we ask him. So we know that he gives us whatever we ask from him.

¹⁶ Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will give them life. I am talking about people whose sin does not lead to eternal death. There is sin that leads to death. I don’t mean that you should pray about that kind of sin. ¹⁷ Doing wrong is always sin. But there is sin that does not lead to eternal death.

¹⁸ We know that those who have been made God’s children do not continue to sin. The Son of God keeps them safe.^[ag] The Evil One cannot hurt them. ¹⁹ We know that we belong to God, but the Evil One controls the whole world. ²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. So now we can know the one who is true, and we live in that true God. We are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and he is eternal life. ²¹ So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

¹ Greetings from the Elder.^[ah]

To the lady^[ai] chosen by God and to her children.

I truly love all of you. And I am not the only one. All those who know the truth^[aj] love you in the same way. ² We love you because of the truth—the truth that lives in us. That truth will be with us forever.

³ Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from his Son, Jesus Christ, as we live in truth and love.

⁴ I was very happy to learn about some of your children. I am happy that they are following the way of truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I tell you: We should all love each other. This is not a new command. It is the same command we had from the beginning. ⁶ And loving means living the way he commanded us to live. And God’s command is this: that you live a life of love. You heard this command from the beginning.

⁷ Many false teachers are in the world now. They refuse to say that Jesus Christ came to earth and became a man. Anyone who refuses to accept this fact is a false teacher and the enemy of Christ. ⁸ Be careful! Don’t lose the reward we^[ak] have worked for. Be careful so that you will receive all of that reward.

⁹ Everyone must continue to follow only the teaching about Christ. Whoever changes that teaching does not have God. But whoever continues to follow the teaching about Christ has both the Father and his Son. ¹⁰ Don’t accept those who come to you but do not bring this teaching. Don’t invite them into your house. Don’t welcome them in any way. ¹¹ If you do, you are helping them with their evil work.

¹² I have much to say to you. But I don’t want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come visit you. Then we can be together and talk. That will make us very happy. ¹³ The children of your sister^[al] who was chosen by God send you their love.

¹ Greetings from the Elder.^[am]

To my dear friend Gaius, a person I truly love.

² My dear friend, I know that you are doing well spiritually. So I pray that everything else is going well with you and that you are enjoying good health. ³ Some believers came and told me about the truth^[an] in your life. They told me that you continue to follow the way of truth. This made me very happy. ⁴ It always gives me the greatest joy when I hear that my children are following the way of truth.

⁵ My dear friend, it is good that you continue to help the believers. They are people you don’t even know. ⁶ They told the church about the love you have. Please help them to continue their trip. Help them in a way that will please God. ⁷ They went on their trip to serve Christ. They did not accept any help from people who are not believers. ⁸ So we should help them. When we help them, we share with their work for the truth.

⁹ I wrote a letter to the church, but Diotrephes will not listen to what we say. He always wants to be the leader. ¹⁰ When I come, I will talk with him about what he is doing. He lies and says evil things about us, but that is not all. He refuses to welcome and help the believers who travel there. And he will not let others help them. If they do, he stops them from meeting with the church anymore.

¹¹ My dear friend, don’t follow what is bad; follow what is good. Whoever does what is good is from God. But whoever does evil has never known God.

¹² Everyone says good things about Demetrius, and the truth agrees with what they say. Also, we say good about him. And you know that what we say is true.

¹³ I have many things I want to tell you. But I don’t want to use pen and ink. ¹⁴ I hope to visit you soon. Then we can be together and talk. ¹⁵ Peace to you. The friends here with me send their love. Please give our love to each one of the friends there.