The Holy Bible

[3:11] The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.

[3:12] We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right.

[3:13] So do not be surprised, my friends, if the people of the world hate you.

[3:14] We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.

[3:15] Those who hate others are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life in them.

[3:16] This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!

[3:17] If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God?

[3:18] My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.

[3:19] This, then, is how we will know that we belong to the truth; this is how we will be confident in God's presence.

[3:20] If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything.

[3:21] And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God's presence.

[3:22] We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

[3:23] What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us.

[3:24] Those who obey God's commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us.

[4:1] My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.

[4:2] This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God.

[4:3] But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.

[4:4] But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

[4:5] Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world.

[4:6] But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

[4:7] Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

[4:8] Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

[4:9] And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

[4:10] This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

[4:11] Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

[4:12] No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

[4:13] We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

[4:14] And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

[4:15] If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.

[4:16] And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.

[4:17] Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's.

[4:18] There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

[4:19] We love because God first loved us.

[4:20] If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.

[4:21] The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

[5:1] Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God; and whoever loves a father loves his child also.

[5:2] This is how we know that we love God's children: it is by loving God and obeying his commands.

[5:3] For our love for God means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not too hard for us,

[5:4] because every child of God is able to defeat the world. And we win the victory over the world by means of our faith.

[5:5] Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

[5:6] Jesus Christ is the one who came with the water of his baptism and the blood of his death. He came not only with the water, but with both the water and the blood. And the Spirit himself testifies that this is true, because the Spirit is truth.

[5:7] There are three witnesses:

[5:8] the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and all three give the same testimony.

[5:9] We believe human testimony; but God's testimony is much stronger, and he has given this testimony about his Son.

[5:10] So those who believe in the Son of God have this testimony in their own heart; but those who do not believe God, have made a liar of him, because they have not believed what God has said about his Son.

[5:11] The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son.

[5:12] Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

[5:13] I am writing this to you so that you may know that you have eternal life—you that believe in the Son of God.

[5:14] We have courage in God's presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will.

[5:15] He hears us whenever we ask him; and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him.

[5:16] If you see a believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give that person life. This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death. But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that.

[5:17] All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which does not lead to death.

[5:18] We know that no children of God keep on sinning, for the Son of God keeps them safe, and the Evil One cannot harm them.

[5:19] We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One.

[5:20] We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God—in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.

[5:21] My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!

[1:1] From the Elder— To the dear Lady and to her children, whom I truly love. And I am not the only one, but all who know the truth love you,

[1:2] because the truth remains in us and will be with us forever.

[1:3] May God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, give us grace, mercy, and peace; may they be ours in truth and love.

[1:4] How happy I was to find that some of your children live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

[1:5] And so I ask you, dear Lady: let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning.

[1:6] This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God's commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.

[1:7] Many deceivers have gone out over the world, people who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and the Enemy of Christ.

[1:8] Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what we have worked for, but will receive your reward in full.

[1:9] Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. Whoever does stay with the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

[1:10] So then, if some come to you who do not bring this teaching, do not welcome them in your homes; do not even say, “Peace be with you.”

[1:11] For anyone who wishes them peace becomes their partner in the evil things they do.

[1:12] I have so much to tell you, but I would rather not do it with paper and ink; instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you personally, so that we shall be completely happy.

[1:13] The children of your dear Sister send you their greetings.