1 John 1; 1 John 2; 1 John 3; 1 John 4; 1 John 5

1 Here is what we announce to everyone about the Word of life. He was already here from the beginning. We have heard him. We have seen him with our eyes. We have looked at him. Our hands have touched him. 2 That life has appeared. We have seen him. We give witness about him. And we announce to you that same eternal life. He was already with the Father. He has appeared to us. 3 We announce to you what we have seen and heard. We do it so you can share life together with us. And we share life with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing this to make our joy complete. 5 Here is the message we have heard from him and announce to you. God is light. There is no darkness in him at all. 6 Suppose we say that we share life with God but still walk in the darkness. Then we are lying. We are not living by the truth. 7 But suppose we walk in the light, just as he is in the light. Then we share life with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, makes us pure from all sin. 8 Suppose we claim we are without sin. Then we are fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us. 9 But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, he will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar. His word has no place in our lives.

1 My dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin. But suppose someone does sin. Then we have one who speaks to the Father for us. He stands up for us. He is Jesus Christ, the Blameless One. 2 He gave his life to pay for our sins. But he not only paid for our sins. He also paid for the sins of the whole world. 3 We know that we have come to know God if we obey his commands. 4 Suppose someone says, "I know him." But suppose that person does not do what God commands. Then that person is a liar and is not telling the truth. 5 But if anyone obeys God's word, then God's love is truly made complete in that person. Here is how we know we belong to him. 6 Those who claim to belong to him must live just as Jesus did. 7 Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command. Instead, I'm writing one you have heard before. You have had it since the beginning. 8 But I am writing what amounts to a new command. Its truth was shown in how Jesus lived. It is also shown in how you live. The darkness is passing away. The true light is already shining. 9 Suppose someone claims to be in the light but hates his brother or sister. Then he is still in the darkness. 10 Those who love their brothers and sisters are living in the light. There is nothing in them to make them fall into sin. 11 But those who hate a brother or sister are in the darkness. They walk around in the darkness. They don't know where they are going. The darkness has made them blind. 12 Dear children, I'm writing to you because your sins have been forgiven. They have been forgiven because of what Jesus has done. 13 Fathers, I'm writing to you because you have known the One who is from the beginning. Young people, I'm writing to you because you have won the battle over the evil one. Dear children, I'm writing to you because you have known the Father. 14 Fathers, I'm writing to you because you have known the One who is from the beginning. Young people, I'm writing to you because you are strong. God's word lives in you. You have won the battle over the evil one. 15 Do not love the world or anything in it. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. 16 Here is what people who belong to this world do. They try to satisfy what their sinful natures want to do. They long for what their sinful eyes look at. They brag about what they have and what they do. All of this comes from the world. It doesn't come from the Father. 17 The world and its evil longings are passing away. But those who do what God wants them to do live forever. 18 Dear children, we are living in the last days. You have heard that the great enemy of Christ is coming. But even now many enemies of Christ have already come. That's how we know that these are the last days. 19 The enemies left our group. They didn't really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by leaving they showed that none of them belonged to us. 20 You have received the Spirit from the Holy One. And all of you know the truth. 21 I'm not writing to you because you don't know the truth but because you do know it. I'm writing to you because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? The person who says that Jesus is not the Christ. People who say that are the enemies of Christ. They say no to the Father and the Son. 23 Those who say no to the Son don't belong to the Father. But anyone who says yes to the Son belongs to the Father also. 24 Make sure that you don't forget what you have heard from the beginning. Then you will remain joined to the Son and to the Father. 25 That's what God has promised us. We have eternal life. 26 I'm writing these things to warn you about those who are trying to lead you down the wrong path. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit from God. He continues to live in you. So you don't need anyone to teach you. God's Spirit teaches you about everything. What he says is true. He doesn't lie. Remain joined to Christ, just as you have been taught by the Spirit. 28 Dear children, remain joined to Christ. Then when he comes, we can be bold. We will not be ashamed to meet him when he comes. 29 You know that God is right and always does what is right. And you know that everyone who does what is right has been born again because of what God has done.

1 How great is the love the Father has given us so freely! Now we can be called children of God. And that's what we really are! The world doesn't know us because it didn't know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God. He still hasn't let us know what we will be. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like him. We will see him as he really is. 3 He is pure. All who hope to be like him make themselves pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, breaking the law is sin. 5 But you know that Christ came to take our sins away. And there is no sin in him. 6 No one who remains joined to him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, don't let anyone lead you down the wrong path. Those who do what is right are holy, just as Christ is holy. 8 Those who do what is sinful belong to the devil. They are just like him. He has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil's work. 9 Those who are born again because of what God has done will not keep on sinning. God's very nature remains in them. They can't go on sinning. They have been born again because of what God has done. 10 Here is how you can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who don't do what is right do not belong to God. Those who don't love their brothers and sisters do not belong to him either. 11 From the beginning we have heard that we should love one another. 12 Don't be like Cain. He belonged to the evil one. He murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because the things Cain had done were wrong. But the things his brother had done were right. 13 My brothers and sisters, don't be surprised if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have left our old dead condition and entered into new life. We know it because we love one another. Those who do not are still living in their old condition. 15 Those who hate their brothers and sisters are murderers. And you know that murderers do not have eternal life in their hearts. 16 We know what love is because Jesus Christ gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 Suppose someone sees a brother or sister in need and is able to help them. If he doesn't take pity on them, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, don't just talk about love. Put your love into action. Then it will truly be love. 19 That's how we know that we hold to the truth. And that's how we put our hearts at rest, knowing that God is watching. 20 Our hearts may judge us. But God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not judge us, we can be bold with God. 22 And he will give us anything we ask. That's because we obey his commands. We do what pleases him. 23 God has commanded us to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. He has also commanded us to love one another. 24 Those who obey his commands remain joined to him. And he remains joined to them. How do we know that God lives in us? We know it because of the Holy Spirit he gave us.

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Put the spirits to the test to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 How can you recognize the Spirit of God? Every spirit that agrees that Jesus Christ came in a human body belongs to God. 3 But every spirit that doesn't agree with this does not belong to God. It is the spirit of the great enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy is coming. Even now he is already in the world. 4 Dear children, you belong to God. You have not accepted the teachings of the false prophets. That's because the One who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world. 5 False prophets belong to the world. So they speak from the world's point of view. The world listens to them. 6 We belong to God. And those who know God listen to us. But those who don't belong to God don't listen to us. That's how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of lies. 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born again because of what God has done. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 How did God show his love for us? He sent his one and only Son into the world. He sent him so we could receive life through him. 10 What is love? It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we should also love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we belong to him and he belongs to us. He has given us his Holy Spirit. 14 The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We have seen it. We give witness to it. 15 God lives in anyone who agrees that Jesus is the Son of God. That kind of person remains joined to God. 16 So we know that God loves us. We depend on it. God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows that he is joined to God. And God is joined to him. 17 So love is made complete among us. We will be bold on the day God judges us. That's because in this world we love as Jesus did. 18 There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives fear away. Fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love. 19 We love because he loved us first. 20 Anyone who says he loves God but in fact hates his brother or sister is a liar. He doesn't love his brother or sister, whom he has seen. So he can't love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Here is the command God has given us. Anyone who loves God must also love his brothers and sisters.

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born again because of what God has done. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children as well. 2 How do we know that we love God's children? We know it when we love God and obey his commands. 3 Here is what it means to love God. It means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not hard to obey. 4 That's because everyone who is a child of God has won the battle over the world. Our faith has won the battle for us. 5 Who is it that has won the battle over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 6 Jesus Christ is the one who was baptized in water and died on the cross. He wasn't just baptized in water. He also died on the cross. The Holy Spirit has given a truthful witness about him. That's because the Spirit is the truth. 7 There are three that give witness about Jesus. 8 They are the Holy Spirit, the baptism of Jesus and his death. And the three of them agree. 9 We accept the witness of people. But the witness of God is more important because it is God who gives it. He has given witness about his Son. 10 Those who believe in the Son of God have accepted that witness in their hearts. Those who do not believe God's witness are calling him a liar. That's because they have not believed his witness about his Son. 11 Here is God's witness. He has given us eternal life. That life is found in his Son. 12 Those who belong to the Son have life. Those who do not belong to the Son of God do not have life. 13 I'm writing these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. I'm doing it so you will know that you have eternal life. 14 There is one thing we can be sure of when we come to God in prayer. If we ask anything in keeping with what he wants, he hears us. 15 If we know that God hears what we ask for, we know that we have it. 16 Suppose you see your brother or sister commit a sin. But that sin is not the kind that leads to death. Then you should pray for them. And God will give life to them. I'm talking about someone whose sin does not lead to death. But there is a sin that does lead to death. I'm not saying that you should pray about that. 17 Every wrong thing we do is sin. But there are sins that do not lead to death. 18 We know that those who are children of God do not keep on sinning. The Son of God keeps them safe. The evil one can't harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God. We know that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We also know that the Son of God has come. He has given us understanding. Now we can know the One who is true. And we belong to the One who is true. We also belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep away from statues of gods.