Bible in 90 Days

¹³ Who in your community is understanding and wise? Let his example, which is marked by wisdom and gentleness, blaze a trail for others. ¹⁴ If your heart is one that bleeds dark streams of jealousy and selfishness, do not be so proud that you ignore your depraved state. ¹⁵ The wisdom of this world should never be mistaken for heavenly wisdom; it originates below in the earthly realms, with the demons. ¹⁶ Any place where you find jealousy and selfish ambition, you will discover chaos and evil thriving under its rule. ¹⁷ Heavenly wisdom centers on purity, peace, gentleness, deference, mercy, and other good fruits untainted by hypocrisy. ¹⁸ The seed that flowers into righteousness will always be planted in peace by those who embrace peace.

4 Where do you think your fighting and endless conflict come from? Don’t you think that they originate in the constant pursuit of gratification that rages inside each of you like an uncontrolled militia? ² You crave something that you do not possess, so you murder to get it. You desire the things you cannot earn, so you sue others and fight for what you want. You do not have because you have chosen not to ask. ³ And when you do ask, you still do not get what you want because your motives are all wrong—because you continually focus on self-indulgence. ⁴ You are adulterers. Don’t you know that making friends with this corrupt world order is open aggression toward God? So anyone who aligns with this bogus world system is declaring war against the one true God. ⁵ Do you think it is empty rhetoric when the Scriptures say, “The spirit that lives in us is addicted to envy and jealousy”?^{[a] 6} You may think that the situation is hopeless, but God gives us more grace when we turn away from our own interests. That’s why Scripture says,

⁷ So submit yourselves to the one true God and fight against the devil and his schemes. If you do, he will run away in failure. ⁸ Come close to the one true God, and He will draw close to you. Wash your hands; you have dirtied them in sin. Cleanse your heart, because your mind is split down the middle, your love for God on one side and selfish pursuits on the other.

⁹ Now is the time to lament, to grieve, and to cry. Dissolve your laughter into sobbing, and exchange your joy for depression. ¹⁰ Lay yourself bare, facedown to the ground, in humility before the Lord; and He will lift your head so you can stand tall. ¹¹ My brothers and sisters, do not assault each other with criticism. If you decide your job is to accuse and judge another believer, then you are a self-appointed critic and judge of the law; if so, then you are no longer a doer of the law and subject to its rule; you stand over it as a judge. ¹² Know this—there is One who stands supreme as Judge and Lawgiver. He alone is able to save and to destroy, so who are you to step in and try to judge another?

¹³ Listen carefully, those of you who make your plans and say, “We are traveling to this city in the next few days. We’ll stay there for one year while our business explodes and revenue is up.” ¹⁴ The reality is you have no idea where your life will take you tomorrow. You are like a mist that appears one moment and then vanishes another. ¹⁵ It would be best to say, “If it is the Lord’s will and we live long enough, we hope to do this project or pursue that dream.” ¹⁶ But your current speech indicates an arrogance that does not acknowledge the One who controls the universe, and this kind of big talking is the epitome of evil. ¹⁷ So if you know the right way to live and ignore it, it is sin—plain and simple.

5 Hey, you rich folk, misery is on its way; so cry and moan ² because you will watch your riches rot before your eyes as the moths devour your fine clothes. ³ Your stockpile of silver and gold is tarnished and corroded, and this rust will stand up in the final judgment and testify against you. It will eat your flesh like fire and become a permanent and painful reminder that you have hoarded your wealth through these last days. ⁴ Listen. You held back a just wage from the laborers who mowed your fields, and that money is crying out against you, demanding that justice be done. The cries of the people who harvested your crops and made you a profit have fallen upon the ears of the supreme Lord of heavenly armies. ⁵ Your life on the earth has been one of luxury, pleasure, and endless consumption; you have feasted to your hearts’ content on animals you slaughtered, but now the day of slaughter comes for you. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the righteous man, and he did not defend himself.

⁷ For this reason, my brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the return of the Lord. Look! The farmer knows how to wait patiently for the land to produce vegetables and fruits. He cannot harvest a freshly planted seed. Instead, he waits for the early and the late showers to nourish the soil. ⁸ You need this same kind of patience, so in the meantime, strengthen your resolve because the Lord will be coming soon.

⁹ Brothers and sisters, don’t waste your breath complaining about one another. If you judge others, you will be judged yourself. Be very careful! You will face the one true Judge who is right outside the door. ¹⁰ The prophets who declared the word of the Lord are your role models, my brothers and sisters, for what it means to live patiently in the face of suffering. ¹¹ Look, we bless and honor the memory of those who persevered under hardship. Remember how Job endured and how the Lord orchestrated the triumph of his final circumstances as a grand display of His mercy and compassion.

¹² It is even more important, my brothers and sisters, that you remember not to make a vow by the heavens or the earth or by anything. When you say “yes,” it should always mean “yes,” and “no” should always mean “no.” If you can keep your word, you will avoid judgment.

¹³ Are any in your community suffering? They should pray. Are any celebrating? They should sing praises to God. ¹⁴ Are any sick? They should call the elders of your church and ask them to pray. They will gather around and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ Prayers offered in faith will restore them from sickness and bring them to health. The Lord will lift them up from the floor of despair; and if the sickness is due to sin, then God will forgive their sins. ¹⁶ So own up to your sins to one another and pray for one another. In the end, you may be healed. Your prayers are powerful when they are rooted in a righteous life. ¹⁷ Remember Elijah? He was a man, no different from us. He prayed with great intensity asking God to withhold the rain; God answered his prayers and did not allow a single drop of rain to fall for three and a half years. ¹⁸ It did not rain until Elijah prayed again for God to open the skies, when the rain came down and the earth produced a great crop.

¹⁹ Brothers and sisters, if someone you know loses his way and rebels against God, pursue him in love and bring him back to the truth. ²⁰ Know this: If you turn a sinner back from the error of his ways, then you will rescue him from the grips of death and cover the pain and consequences of untold sins.

1 Peter, an emissary^[c] of Jesus the Anointed One, to God’s chosen people living as aliens scattered among the unbelievers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. ² I am sending this letter to those who have been selected and destined by God the Father and made holy by God the Spirit that you may be obedient to Jesus the Anointed and purified by the sprinkling of His blood. May grace and peace beyond all reckoning be yours.

³ Blessed is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! Because He has raised Jesus the Anointed from death, through His great mercy we have been reborn into a living hope— ⁴ reborn for an eternal inheritance, held in reserve in heaven, that will never fade or fail. ⁵ Through faith, God’s power is standing watch, protecting you for a salvation that you will see completely at the end of things. ⁶ You should greatly rejoice in what is waiting for you, even if now for a little while you have to suffer various trials. ⁷ Suffering tests your faith which is more valuable than gold (remember that gold, although it is perishable, is tested by fire) so that if it is found genuine, you can receive praise, honor, and glory when Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, is revealed at last.

⁸ Although you haven’t seen Jesus, you still love Him. Although you don’t yet see Him, you do believe in Him and celebrate with a joy that is glorious and beyond words. ⁹ You are receiving the salvation of your souls as the result of your faith.

¹⁰ The prophets who spoke of this outpouring of grace upon you diligently searched and inquired of the Lord about this salvation: ¹¹ to whom and to what time was the indwelling Spirit of the Anointed referring when He told them about the suffering of the Anointed and the honor that would follow it? ¹² The Spirit revealed to them they were not serving themselves but you. And you have learned from those who told you the good news by the Spirit that was sent down from heaven. Even the heavenly messengers would like to explore this news.

¹³ So get yourselves ready, prepare your minds to act, control yourselves, and look forward in hope as you focus on the grace that comes when Jesus the Anointed returns and is completely revealed to you. ¹⁴ Be like obedient children as you put aside the desires you used to pursue when you didn’t know better. ¹⁵ Since the One who called you is holy, be holy in all you do. ¹⁶ For the Scripture says, “You are to be holy, for I am holy.”^{[d] 17} If you call on the Father who judges everyone without partiality according to their actions, then you should live in reverence and awe while you live out the days of your exile.

¹⁸ You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of the Anointed, who was like a perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb. ²⁰ God determined to send Him before the world began, but He came into the world in these last days for your sake. ²¹ Through Him, you’ve been brought to trust in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him for the very reason that your faith and hope are in Him.

²² Now that you have taken care to purify your souls through your submission to the truth, you can experience real love for each other. So love each other deeply from a [pure]^[e] heart. ²³ You have been reborn—not from seed that eventually dies but from seed that is eternal—through the word of God that lives and endures forever. ²⁴ For as Isaiah said,

This is the word that has been preached to you.

2 So get rid of hatefulness and deception, of insincerity and jealousy and slander. ² Be like newborn babies, crying out for spiritual milk that will help you grow into salvation ³ if you have tasted and found the Lord to be good.

⁴ Come to Him—the living stone—who was rejected by people but accepted by God as chosen and precious. ⁵ Like living stones, let yourselves be assembled into a spiritual house, a holy order of priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus the Anointed. ⁶ For it says in the words of the prophet Isaiah,

⁷ To you who believe and depend on Him, He is precious; but to you who don’t, remember the words of the psalmist:

⁸ and of Isaiah:

They stumble because they don’t follow the word of God, as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received it.

¹¹ Beloved, remember you don’t belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in exile, so resist those desires of the flesh that battle against the soul. ¹² Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He returns in judgment.

¹³ For the Lord’s sake, accept the decrees and laws of all the various human institutions, whether they come from the highest human ruler ¹⁴ or agents he sends to punish those who do wrong and to reward those who do well. ¹⁵ You see, it is God’s will that by doing what is right and good you should hush the gabbing ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶ Live as those who are free and not as those who use their freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as God’s servants. ¹⁷ Respect everyone. Love the community of believers. Reverence God. Honor your ruler.

¹⁸ If you are a slave, submit yourself to the master who has authority over you, whether he is kind and gentle or harsh as he deals with you. ¹⁹ For grace is clearly at work when a person accepts undeserved pain and suffering and does so because he is mindful of God. ²⁰ For what credit is there in enduring punishment you deserve? But if you do what is right and yet are punished and endure it patiently, God will be pleased with you. ^21-22 For you were called to this kind of life, as Isaiah said,

The Anointed One suffered for us and left us His example so that we could follow in His steps. ²³ When He was verbally abused, He didn’t return the abuse; when He suffered, He didn’t make threats to cause suffering in return; instead, He trusted that all would be put right by the One who is just when He judges. ²⁴ He took on our sins in His body when He died on the cross^[k] so that we, being dead to sin, can live for righteousness. As the Scripture says, “Through His wounds, you were healed.”^{[l] 25} For there was a time when you were like sheep that wandered from the fold, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your lives.

3 ^1-2 In the same way, wives, you should patiently accept the authority of your husbands. This is so that even if they don’t obey God’s word, as they observe your pure respectful behavior, they may be persuaded without a word by the way you live. ³ Don’t focus on decorating your exterior by doing your hair or putting on fancy jewelry or wearing fashionable clothes; ⁴ let your adornment be what’s inside—the real you, the lasting beauty of a gracious and quiet spirit, in which God delights. ⁵ This is how, long ago, holy women who put their hope in God made themselves beautiful: by respecting the authority of their husbands. ⁶ Consider how Sarah, our mother, obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him “lord,” and you will be her daughters as long as you boldly do what is right without fear and without anxiety.

⁷ In the same way, husbands, as you live with your wives, understand the situations women face as the weaker vessel. Each of you should respect your wife and value her as an equal heir in the gracious gift of life. Do this so that nothing will get in the way of your prayers.

⁸ Finally, all of you, be like-minded and show sympathy, love, compassion, and humility to and for each other— ⁹ not paying back evil with evil or insult with insult, but repaying the bad with a blessing. It was this you were called to do, so that you might inherit a blessing. ¹⁰ It is written in the psalms,

¹³ Why would anyone harm you if you eagerly do good? ¹⁴ Even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you will receive a blessing. Don’t let them frighten you. Don’t be intimidated, ^15-16 but exalt Him as Lord in your heart. Always be ready to offer a defense, humbly and respectfully, when someone asks why you live in hope. Keep your conscience clear so that those who ridicule your good conduct in the Anointed and say bad things about you will be put to shame.

¹⁷ For if it is the will of God that you suffer, then it is better to suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong. ¹⁸ The Anointed One suffered for sins once for all time—the righteous suffering for the unrighteous—so that He might bring us to God. Though He died in the flesh, He was made alive again through the Spirit. ¹⁹ And in the Spirit, He went and preached to those spirits held captive. ²⁰ It was these who long ago lived in disobedience while God waited patiently as Noah was building the ark. At that time, only a tiny band—eight people—was spared from the flood.

²¹ The water through which the ark safely passed symbolizes now the ceremonial washing through baptism^[n] that initiates you into salvation. You are saved not because it cleanses your body of filth but because of your appeal to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King. ²² Now He has entered heaven and sits at the right hand of God as heavenly messengers and authorities and powers submit to His supremacy.

4 Since the Anointed suffered in the flesh, prepare yourselves to do the same—anyone who has suffered in the flesh for the Lord is no longer in the grip of sin— ² so that you may live the rest of your life on earth controlled not by earthly desires but by the will of God.

³ You have already wasted enough time living like those outsiders in the society around you: losing yourselves in sex, in addictions and desires, in drinking and lawless idolatry, in giving your time and allegiance to things that are not godly. ⁴ When you don’t play the same games they do, they notice that you are living by different rules. That’s why they say such terrible things about you. ⁵ Someday they, too, will have to give an account of themselves to the One who judges the living and the dead. ⁶ (This is why the good news had to be brought to those who are dead so that although they are judged in the flesh, they might live in the spirit in the way that pleases God.)

⁷ We are coming to the end of all things, so be serious and keep your wits about you in order to pray more forcefully. ⁸ Most of all, love each other steadily and unselfishly, because love makes up for many faults. ⁹ Show hospitality to each other without complaint. ¹⁰ Use whatever gift you’ve received for the good of one another so that you can show yourselves to be good stewards of God’s grace in all its varieties. ¹¹ If you’re called upon to talk, speak as though God put the words in your mouth; if you’re called upon to serve others, serve as though you had the strength of God behind you. In these ways, God may be glorified in all you do through Jesus the Anointed, to whom belongs glory and power, now and forever. Amen.

¹² Dear ones, don’t be surprised when you experience your trial by fire. It is not something strange and unusual, ¹³ but it is something you should rejoice in. In it you share the Anointed’s sufferings, and you will be that much more joyful when His glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If anyone condemns you for following Jesus as the Anointed One, consider yourself blessed. The glorious Spirit of God rests on you. ¹⁵ But none of you should ever merit suffering like those who have murdered or stolen, meddled in the affairs of others or done evil things. ¹⁶ But if you should suffer for being a Christian, don’t think of it as a disgrace, as it would be if you had done wrong. Praise God that you’re permitted to carry this name.

¹⁷ For the time for judgment has come, and it is beginning with the household of God. If it is starting with us, what will happen to those who have rejected God’s good news? ¹⁸ It is written in Proverbs,

¹⁹ So even if you should suffer now for doing God’s will, continue doing good and trust your futures to the judgment and mercy of a faithful Creator.

5 Now for the elders of the church. I want to encourage you. As you know, I am an elder, too, like you. I have witnessed firsthand the sufferings of the Anointed One as well as shared in the glories which are soon to be revealed. ² When you shepherd the flock God has given you, watch over them not because you have to but because you want to. For this is how God would want it not because you’re being compensated somehow but because you are eager to watch over them. ³ Don’t lead them as if you were a dictator, but lead your flock by example; ⁴ and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will be crowned with honor that will shine brightly forever. ⁵ You who are younger in the faith: do as your elders and leaders ask. All of you should treat each other with humility, for as it says in Proverbs,

⁶ So bow down under God’s strong hand; then when the time comes, God will lift you up. ⁷ Since God cares for you, let Him carry all your burdens and worries.

⁸ Most importantly, be disciplined and stay on guard. Your enemy the devil is prowling around outside like a roaring lion, just waiting and hoping for the chance to devour someone. ⁹ Resist him and be strong in your faith, knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are fellow sufferers with you. ¹⁰ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who has called you [to His everlasting presence]^[q] through Jesus the Anointed will restore you, support you, strengthen you, and ground you. ¹¹ For all power belongs to God, now and forever. Amen.

¹² Silvanus,^[r] whom I consider a trustworthy and faithful brother, is carrying this brief letter to encourage you and to testify that here is the true grace of God. Hold on to it.

¹³ The church here in Babylon^[s] chosen by God together with you, sends you greetings. So does my son in the faith Mark.

¹⁴ Greet each other with a kiss of love, and may peace come to all who follow Jesus the Anointed.

1 Simon Peter, a servant and emissary^[t] of Jesus the Anointed One, to those who have received the same precious faith we share through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Anointed. ² I wish you a full measure of grace and peace as you grow in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue. ⁴ Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature.

⁵ To achieve this, you will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; ⁶ to knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add godliness; ⁷ to godliness, add affection for others as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love. ⁸ For if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with our Lord Jesus the Anointed; ⁹ but if you don’t have these qualities, then you will be nearsighted and blind, forgetting that your past sins have been washed away. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers and sisters, work that much harder to confirm that God has called you and claimed you. If you do this, then you will never fall along the way; ¹¹ and you can be sure that you will be richly welcomed into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King.

¹² That is why I will keep reminding you of these things, even though I know that you believe them and have made these truths a part of your lives; ¹³ as long as I draw breath, I know it is right for me to keep on stirring you up with these reminders. ¹⁴ I know that soon I must die and lay down this old body that’s been my home—our Lord Jesus the Anointed has told me so. ¹⁵ But before my exodus from this life, I want to be certain you will be able to call these things to mind anytime you need them even after I am gone.

¹⁶ For I want to remind you that when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, we were relying on what our eyes had seen of His glorious majesty, not on cleverly told fables. ¹⁷ You see, God the Father lavished honor and glory upon Jesus when the voice of the Majestic Glory echoed from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, and My favor rests on Him.”^{[u] 18} We witnessed this—we ourselves heard this voice from heaven—when we were with Jesus on that holy mountain. ¹⁹ We have a fuller confirmation of the message of the prophets. You would do well to pay close attention to this word; it is like a light that shines for you in the darkness of night until the day dawns when the morning star rises in your own hearts.

²⁰ But notice first that no prophecy found in Scripture is a matter of the prophet’s own interpretation. ²¹ Prophecy has never been a product of human initiative, but it comes when men and women are moved to speak on behalf of God by the Holy Spirit.

2 Just as false prophets rose up in the past among God’s people, false teachers will rise up in the future among you. They will slip in with their destructive opinions, denying the very Master who bought their freedom and dooming themselves to destruction swiftly, ² but not before they attract others by their unbridled and immoral behavior. Because of them and their ways, others will criticize and condemn the path of truth we walk as seedy and disreputable. ³ These false teachers will follow their greed and exploit you with their fabrications, but be assured that their judgment was pronounced long ago and their destruction does not sleep.

⁴ For God did not spare the heavenly beings who sinned, but He cast them into the dark pits^[v] of hell^[w] to be kept until the time of judgment; ⁵ and He did not spare the ancient world, but He sent a flood swirling over the ungodly (although He did save Noah, God’s herald for what is right, with seven other members of his family); ⁶ and God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ash as a lesson of what He will do with the ungodly in the days to come ^7-8 (although again He did rescue Lot, a person who did what was right in God’s eyes and who was distressed by the immorality and the lawlessness of the society around him. Day after day, the sights and sounds of their lawlessness were like daggers into that good man’s soul). ⁹ If all this happened in the past, it shows clearly the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and how to hold the wicked in punishment until the day of judgment.

¹⁰ And above all, it shows He will punish those who let the desires of their bodies rule them and who have no respect for authority. People like this are so bold and willful that they aren’t even afraid of offending heavenly beings, ¹¹ although the heavenly messengers—in spite of the fact that they have greater strength and power—make no such accusations against these people before the Lord. ¹² These people who speak ill of what they do not understand are no different from animals—without sense, operating only on their instincts, born to be captured and killed—and they will be destroyed just like those animals, ¹³ receiving the penalty for their evil acts. They waste their days in parties and carousing. As they feast with you, these stains and blemishes on your community are feasting on their deceptions.^{[x] 14} Their eyes are always looking for their next adulterous conquests; their appetites for sin cannot be satisfied. They seduce the unwary soul, and greed is the only lesson they have learned by heart. God’s curse lies upon them. ¹⁵ They have veered off the right road and gotten lost, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, the false prophet. Balaam loved the reward he could get by doing evil, ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for crossing the line into sin; his own speechless donkey scolded him in a human voice, an amazing miracle that reined in the prophet’s insanity.^[y]

¹⁷ These people I’m talking about are nothing but dried-up springs, mists driven by fierce winds; the deepest darkness has been set aside for them. ¹⁸ They speak in loud voices empty and arrogant. They exploit the desires of the flesh, take advantage of sensual natures, to entangle people who have just escaped from those who live by deception. ¹⁹ They claim to offer them freedom, but they themselves are enslaved by corruption because whatever a person gives in to soon becomes his master. ²⁰ Those who have been pulled out of the cesspool of worldly desires through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Anointed One, yet have found themselves mired in it again are worse off than they were before. ²¹ They would have been better off never knowing the way of righteousness than to have known it and then abandoned the sacred commandment they had previously received and dived back into the muck! ²² In their cases, the words from Proverbs hold true: “The dog goes back to his own vomit,”^[z] and as the Greeks say, “The sow is washed to wallow in the mud.”

3 This is now, my dear friends, my second letter to you. In both of them, I have tried to inspire you to a sincere and pure way of thinking by reminding you of what you already know. ² Remember the words spoken earlier by God’s holy prophets and the commandment that our Lord and Savior gave to you through your emissaries.^{[aa] 3} Above all, be sure to remember that in the last days mockers will come, following their own desires and taunting you, ⁴ saying, “So what happened to the promised second coming of Jesus? For everything keeps going just the way it has since our ancestors fell asleep in death; since the beginning of creation, nothing’s changed.”

⁵ When they make fun of you, it’s as if the scoffers are deliberately forgetting that long ago when God spoke the word, the heavens came into existence and the earth formed from water and by water. ⁶ The waters later flooded and destroyed that world. ⁷ By that same word, the heavens and earth we see now are being reserved for destruction by fire, preserved until the time comes for the godless on the day of judgment.

⁸ Don’t imagine, dear friends, that God’s timetable is the same as ours; as the psalm says, for with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.^[ab]

⁹ Now the Lord is not slow about enacting His promise—slow is how some people want to characterize it—no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from following his own path and to turn toward God’s.^[ac]

¹⁰ The day of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night; and on that day, the sky will vanish with a roar, the elements will melt with intense heat, and the earth and all the works done on it will be seen as they truly are.^{[ad] 11} Knowing that one day all this will come to pass, think what sort of people you ought to be—how you should be living faithful and godly lives, ¹² waiting hopefully for and hastening the coming of God’s day when the heavens will vanish in flames and the elements melt away with intense heat. ¹³ What will happen next, and what we hope for, is what God promised: a new heaven and a new earth where justice reigns.

¹⁴ So, my friends, while we wait for the day of the Lord, work hard to live in peace, without flaw or blemish; ¹⁵ and look at the patience of the Lord as your salvation. Our dearly loved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written about this. ¹⁶ He says essentially the same in all of his letters, although uneducated and unstable readers misinterpret the difficult passages, just as they always misread Scripture, to their spiritual ruin.

¹⁷ So hear my final words, my friends. Now that I have warned you about what’s ahead, keep up your guard and don’t let unprincipled people pull you away from the sure ground of the truth with their lies and misunderstandings. ¹⁸ Instead, grow in grace and in the true knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Anointed, to whom be glory, now and until the coming of the new age. Amen.

1 We want to tell you about the One who was from the beginning. We have seen Him with our own eyes, heard Him with our own ears, and touched Him with our own hands. This One is the manifestation of the life-giving Voice, ² and He showed us real life, eternal life. We have seen it all, and we can’t keep what we witnessed quiet—we have to share it with you. We are inviting you to experience eternal life through the One who was with the Father and came down to us. ³ What we saw and heard we pass on to you so that you, too, will be connected with us intimately and become family. Our family is united by our connection with the Father and His Son Jesus, the Anointed One; ⁴ and we write all this because retelling this story fulfills our^[ae] joy.

⁵ What we are telling you now is the very message we heard from Him: God is pure light, undimmed by darkness of any kind. ⁶ If we say we have an intimate connection with the Father but we continue stumbling around in darkness, then we are lying because we do not live according to truth. ⁷ If we walk step by step in the light, where the Father is, then we are ultimately connected to each other through the sacrifice of Jesus His Son. His blood purifies us from all our sins. ⁸ If we go around bragging, “We have no sin,” then we are fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth. ⁹ But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done. ¹⁰ If we say, “We have not sinned,” then we depict God as a liar and show that we have not let His word find its way into our hearts.

2 You are my little children, so I am writing these things to help you avoid sin. If, however, any believer does sin, we have a high-powered defense lawyer—Jesus the Anointed, the righteous—arguing on our behalf before the Father. ² It was through His sacrificial death that our sins were atoned. But He did not stop there—He died for the sins of the whole world.

³ We know we have joined Him in an intimate relationship because we live out His commands. ⁴ If someone claims, “I am in an intimate relationship with Him,” but this big talker doesn’t live out His commands, then this individual is a liar and a stranger to the truth. ⁵ But if someone responds to and obeys His word, then God’s love has truly taken root and filled him. This is how we know we are in an intimate relationship with Him: ⁶ anyone who says, “I live in intimacy with Him,” should walk the path Jesus walked.

⁷ My loved ones, in one sense, I am not writing a new command for you. I am only reminding you of the old command. It’s a word you already know, a word that has existed from the beginning. ⁸ However, in another sense, I am writing a new command for you. The new command is the truth that He lived; and now you are living it, too, because the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining among you.

⁹ Anyone who says, “I live in the light,” but hates his brother or sister is still living in the shadows. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves his brother or sister lives in the light and will not trip because his conscience is clear. ¹¹ But anyone who hates his brother is in the darkness, stumbling around with no idea where he is going, blinded by the darkness.

¹² I am writing to you, my children, because your sins have been forgiven by the authority of His name.

¹³ I am writing to you, fathers and mothers, because you have known Him as the Creator, as the One who started everything.

I am writing to you, young people, because He has given you the power to conquer the evil one.

¹⁴ I have written to you, my children, because you have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers and mothers, because you have known Him, the Creator.

I have written to you, young people, because the voice of God remains and is heard among you. Remember that you have conquered the evil one.

¹⁵ Don’t fall in love with this corrupt world or worship the things it can offer. Those who love its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love living within them. ¹⁶ All the things the world can offer to you—the allure of pleasure, the passion to have things, and the pompous sense of superiority—do not come from the Father. These are the rotten fruits of this world. ¹⁷ This corrupt world is already wasting away, as are its selfish desires. But the person really doing God’s will—that person will never cease to be.

¹⁸ My children, this is the final hour. You have heard that the antiChrist, the greatest enemy to His kingdom, is coming, but in fact, many antiChrists are already here. This development tells us how late it really is. ¹⁹ A group has left us, but they were not part of our family. If they were truly our brothers and sisters, they would have remained for the duration with us. When they left, they made it ever so obvious that they were not part of us.

²⁰ You have been given an anointing, a special touch from the Holy One. You know the truth.^{[af] 21} I am not writing to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it. You know that no lie belongs to the truth. ²² The liar is the one who says, “Jesus is not really the Anointed One.” This is the antiChrist, the one denying both the Father and the Son. ²³ Anyone who denies the Son does not know the Father. The one affirming the Son enjoys an intimate relationship with the Father as well.

²⁴ Let the good news, the story you have heard from the beginning of your journey, live in and take hold of you. If that happens and you focus on the good news, then you will always remain in a relationship with the Son and the Father. ²⁵ This is what He promised us: eternal life.

²⁶ I also am writing to warn you about some who are attempting to deceive you. ²⁷ You have an anointing. You received it from Him, and His anointing remains on you. You do not need any other teacher. But as His anointing instructs you in all the essentials (all the truth uncontaminated by darkness and lies), it teaches you this: “Remain connected to Him.”

²⁸ So now, my little children, live in Him, so that whenever He is revealed, we will have confidence and not have to hang our heads in shame before Him when He comes. ²⁹ If you know that He is just and faithful, then you also know that everyone who lives faithfully and acts justly has been born into a new life through Him.

3 Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either.

² My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. ³ All those who focus their hopes on Him and His coming seek to purify themselves just as He is pure.

⁴ Everyone who lives a life of habitual sin is living in moral anarchy. That’s what sin is. ⁵ You realize that He came to eradicate sins, that there is not the slightest bit of sin in Him. ⁶ The ones who live in an intimate relationship with Him do not persist in sin, but anyone who persists in sin has not seen and does not know the real Jesus.

⁷ Children, don’t let anyone pull one over on you. The one doing the right thing is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.

⁸ The one persisting in sin belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one.

⁹ Everyone who has been born into God’s family avoids sin as a lifestyle because the genes of God’s children come from God Himself. Therefore, a child of God can’t live a life of persistent sin. ¹⁰ So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who lack right standing and those who don’t show love for one another do not belong to God.

¹¹ The central truth—the one you have heard since the beginning of your faith—is that we must love one another. ¹² Please do not act like Cain, who was of the evil one. He brutally murdered his own brother.^[ag] Why would he do something so despicable? Because his life was devoted to evil and selfishness, and his brother chose to do what is right.

¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t be shocked if the corrupt world despises you. ¹⁴ We know that we have crossed over from death to real life because we are devoted to true love for our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love lives among corpses.

¹⁵ Everyone who hates other members of God’s family is a murderer. Does a murderer possess the beautiful life that never ends? No. ¹⁶ We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters.

¹⁷ If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? ¹⁸ My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love.

^19-20 There is a sure way for us to know that we belong to the truth. Even though our inner thoughts may condemn us with storms of guilt and constant reminders of our failures, we can know in our hearts that in His presence God Himself is greater than any accusation. He knows all things. ²¹ My loved ones, if our hearts cannot condemn us, then we can stand with confidence before God. ²² Whatever we may ask, we receive it from Him because we follow His commands and take the path that pleases Him. ²³ His command is clear: believe in the name of His Son, Jesus the Anointed, and love one another as He commanded. ²⁴ The one who follows His teaching and walks this path lives in an intimate relationship with God. How do we know that He lives in us? By the gift of His Spirit.

4 My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from God, because the corrupt world is filled with the voices of many false prophets. ² Here is how you know God’s Spirit: if a spirit affirms the truth that Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, has come in human flesh, then that spirit is from God. ³ If a spirit does not affirm the true nature of Jesus the Anointed, then that spirit does not come from God and is, in fact, the spirit of the antiChrist.^[ah] You have heard about its coming; in fact it is already active in the world. ⁴ My children, you have come from God and have conquered these spirits because the One who lives within you is greater than the one in this world. ⁵ But they are of this world, and they articulate the views of the corrupt world, which the world understands. ⁶ We come from God, and those who know God hear us. Whoever is not from God will not listen to us. This is the way we discern the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

⁷ My loved ones, let us devote ourselves to loving one another. Love comes straight from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and truly knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him. ¹⁰ This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ So, my loved ones, if God loved us so sacrificially, surely we should love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us. Consequently God’s love has accomplished its mission among us.

¹³ How can we be sure that He truly lives in us and that we truly live in Him? By one fact: He has given us His Spirit. ¹⁴ We have watched what God has done, and we stand ready to provide eyewitness testimonies to the reality that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone unites with our confession that Jesus is God’s own Son, then God truly lives in that person and that person lives in God. ¹⁶ We have experienced and we have entrusted our lives to the love of God in us.

God is love. Anyone who lives faithfully in love also lives faithfully in God, and God lives in him. ¹⁷ This love is fulfilled with us, so that on the day of judgment we have confidence based on our identification with Jesus in this world. ¹⁸ Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear, particularly the fear of punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been completed through love.

¹⁹ We love because He has first loved us. ²⁰ If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, then he is a liar. Anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has never seen. ²¹ He gave us a clear command, that all who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.

5 Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. ² Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. ³ You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. ⁴ Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

^5-6 Who is the person conquering the world? It is the one who truly trusts that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus the Anointed is the One who came by water and blood—not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.

The Spirit of God testifies to this truth because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ So there are three testifying witnesses: ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood. All three are in total agreement. ⁹ If we accept the testimonies of people, then we must realize the testimony of God is greater than that of any person. God certified the truth about His own Son. ¹⁰ Anyone who trusts the Son of God has this truthful testimony at the core of his being. Anyone who does not trust God calls God a liar because he ignores God’s truthful testimony regarding His own Son. ¹¹ And this is the truth: God has given us the gift of eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² If you have the Son, you have eternal life. If you do not have the Son of God, you are not acquainted with true life.

¹³ I am writing all of this to you who have entrusted your lives to the Son of God—so you will realize eternal life already is yours. ¹⁴ We live in the bold confidence that God hears our voices when we ask for things that fit His plan. ¹⁵ And if we have no doubt that He hears our voices, we can be assured that He moves in response to our call.

¹⁶ In this regard, if you notice a brother or sister in faith making moral missteps and blunders, disregarding and disobeying God even to the point of God removing this one from the body by death, then pray for that person; and God will grant him life on this journey. But to be clear, there is a sin that is ultimately fatal and leads to death. I am not talking about praying for that fatal sin, ¹⁷ but I am talking about all those wrongs and sins that plague God’s family that don’t lead to death.

¹⁸ We all know that everyone fathered by God will not make sin a way of life because God protects His children from the evil one, and the evil one can’t touch them. ¹⁹ Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God, but also know that the world around us is in the grips of the evil one. ²⁰ We also can be sure of the fact that the Son of God has come and given us a mind so that we may know Him as the embodiment of all that is true. We live in this truth, in His Son Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the True God and eternal life.

²¹ My little children, keep away from idols.

¹ I, the elder, to you, a lady chosen by God along with her children. I truly love all of you and am confident that all who know the truth share in my love for you. ² The truth, which lives faithfully within all of us and will be with us for all eternity, is the basis for our abounding love. ³ May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Anointed, the Father’s own Son, surround you and be with you always in truth and love.

⁴ I was so filled with joy to hear stories about your children walking in truth, in the very way the Father called us to live. ⁵ So now, dear lady, I am asking you to live by the command that we love one another. I’m not writing to you some new commandment; it’s one we received in the beginning from our Lord. ⁶ Love is defined by our obedience to His commands. This is the same command you have known about from the very beginning; you must live by it. ⁷ The corrupt world is filled with liars and frauds who deny the reality that Jesus the Anointed has come into the world as a man of flesh and blood. These people are deceivers and antiChrists.^{[ai] 8} Ensure that you do not lose what we have worked for so that you will be fully rewarded.

⁹ Any person who drifts away and fails to live in the teachings of the Anointed One, our Liberating King, does not have God. But the person who lives in this teaching will have both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If any person comes to you with a teaching that does not align with the true message of Jesus, do not welcome that person into your house or greet him as you would a true brother. ¹¹ Anyone who welcomes this person has become a partner in advancing his wicked agenda.

¹² I have so much more to tell you, but I would rather meet with you personally than try to capture these sentiments by ink on paper. I hope to come and see you so that our joy will be complete.

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

¹ I, the elder, to Gaius, who is much loved by all and loved in truth by me.

² My beloved friend, I pray that everything is going well for you and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous. ³ I was thrilled when the brothers and sisters came and told me stories of your faithfulness as you continue to walk in the truth. ⁴ The greatest joy in my life is hearing how my children are walking in the truth.

⁵ My friend, you demonstrate your faithfulness in all the things you do for the brothers and sisters; even when they are strangers to you, you treat them as family. ⁶ These friends tell the entire church how you have extended your hand to them in love. You will do well to send them on in a way that is in keeping with God. ⁷ They have gone out to serve under the banner of the Name, and they do not accept gifts from those outside our faith community. ⁸ We should give people like this our full support so that we can share in this work for the truth.

⁹ I wrote some things specifically to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the one up front, rejects us. ¹⁰ If I come, you can be sure that I will call him out and draw attention to his actions. He assails us with lies and deceit. As if that were not enough, he does not welcome the traveling missionaries into his home. Instead, he hinders any who do so and expels them from the church.

¹¹ Dear friend, don’t follow his evil ways. Instead, imitate the good and righteous life. The one doing what is good belongs to God, but those who pursue evil have never even laid eyes on God.

¹² Demetrius has a good reputation with everyone we know. The truth stands on his side, and we add our unreserved recommendation to the long list of accounts on his behalf. You can rest assured that we are telling the truth.

¹³ There is so much I would like to say to you, but I do not want to say it with ink and pen. ¹⁴ I expect us to be together soon and talk about these things face-to-face.

¹⁵ May you experience true peace. I send you greetings from the fellow believers here. Greet all our friends there personally.