1 John
Chapter 2
1 Dear children, I write this to you so you don’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have someone who speaks to God for us, Jesus Christ the good one.
2 He is the sacrifice for our sins, not only ours but also for the whole world’s.
3 We know we know God if we follow his commands.
4 The person who says, “I know God,” but doesn’t follow his commands is lying, and doesn’t have the truth in them.
5 But whoever keeps his word truly has God’s love made perfect in them: by this we know we are with him.
6 Whoever says they live in him should also walk just as he did.
7 Friends, I am not writing a new rule to you, but an old rule you’ve known from the start. This old rule is the message you’ve heard since the start.
8 I am giving you a new command: what I tell you is true in both him and you. The dark times are over, and now the real light is shining.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates their brother or sister is still in the dark.
10 The person who loves their brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in them that causes falling.
11 Whoever hates their brother lives in the dark, walks in the dark, and doesn’t know where they’re going, because the dark has made them blind.
12 I write to you, young ones, because God has forgiven your sins for the sake of His name.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you know the one who is from the start. I write to you, young men, because you have beaten the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
14 I wrote to you, fathers, because you know the one from the start. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s message stays in you, and you have beaten the evil one.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, God’s love is not in them.
16 Everything in the world, the cravings of the body, the desires of the eyes, and life’s arrogance, does not come from God but from the world.
17 The world ends, and its desires too: but the person who does what God wants lives forever.
18 Little children, this is the final hour. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now many such enemies are already here. This shows us that it is truly the final hour.
19 They left us because they were not truly with us. If they were, they would have stayed. Their leaving showed they weren’t really part of us.
20 You have a special gift from the Holy One, and you know everything.
21 I have written to you not because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it and that no lie comes from the truth.
22 Who lies except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is against Christ, who denies both the Father and the Son.
23 Anyone who denies the Son does not have God; but whoever accepts the Son has God too.
24 Keep what you’ve heard from the start in you. If what you’ve heard from the start stays in you, you will also stay in the Son and in God.
25 This is the promise he made to us: eternal life.
26 I have written these things to you about those who mislead you.
27 The special blessing you got from God stays in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. That very blessing teaches you everything, and it’s true, not a lie. Just as it has taught you, stay close to God.
28 And now, little children, stay close to him; so that when he comes, we can be brave and not feel embarrassed in front of him.
29 If you know that God is good, you know that anyone who does good things is God’s child.